Pride and Prejudice
by PhoebeDreams
Summary: James is proud, Lily is prejudiced. How will those two ever get together? Hot chocolate, close quarters and flying lessons might just be the answer!
1. Chapter 1

Pride and Prejudice - Sort of a prologue 

Lily Evans was sliding down the corridor towards Gryffindor tower on a puddle of slug slime, bubotuber pus, and "The Sorcerer's Soft Soap, super strong and super slippery". She was trying hard to keep her balance, for she had no intention to fall down and ruin her robes.

The day had started out so good: The sun was shining, the birds were singing, it was a beautiful spring morning, she had been sent muffins by her dad, and she had gotten more points in the latest transfiguration test than James Potter. She was nowfirst of the class alongwith Remus Lupin, but since he wasn't as arrogant as the other "Marauders", that didn't bother her. But then she'd stepped out of the Great Hall onto this film of slime, and was now rapidly sliding towards James Potter's open arms. That boy took every opportunity to hit on her and embarrass her. And when he wasn't occupied with trying to win her over, they were fighting. She briefly considered stopping and falling down, but remembered the slug slime, and surrendered to her fate of being caught by James Potter. And there it was.

"Need some help, Evans?" his mischievous voice sounded. Then two strong arms closed around her, a little too tight. She was crushed against his chest, and if he hadn't held her so tight, she would have fallen down. Since her feet were still standing on the puddle of soap and slime, he lifted her up and placed her back on solid ground. There, he still didn't release her, but kept holding on to her a little too long.

"You can let go of me now, Potter!" She pushed against his chest, so when he released her abruptly, she stumbled backwards a few steps and would have collapsed again, hadn't he caught her arms.

"Someone's a little weak in the knees, huh? Maybe it's got something to do with the nearness of me? Want to get back into my loving embrace?"

"Oh, you figured me out! Being crushed by you is what I always wanted! Now sweep me up into your strong arms and kiss me senseless!" He smiled mischievously and took a step towards her, his eyes sparkling. She turned around quickly and walked away, almost stepping into the puddle again.

"In your dreams, Potter!" if Lily had turned around and would have seen the crushed expression on James' face, maybe she would have gotten another impression of the black-haired boy. But as it was, her picture of him was complete: Arrogant, stupid, mean prankster who thought he was irresistible. Pah! Even if half the female population of Hogwarts was drooling after him, she wouldn't even consider going out with him, like he had asked her since her third year. But that boy just wouldn't take a no for a no!

"Aren't you gonna thank me for saving you, Evans? Next time I see you sliding down the Great Hall, I won't catch you again!"

"Thank you!" Lily answered without looking back, and even she herself wasn't sure if it was for saving her or for promising to leave her alone.

"You're welcome, Evans. As always!" In spite of herself, Lily had to smile. Sure, she couldn't stand that git. But something about his patience, or stubbornness, or whatever it was that made him go after her for three years without giving up, even if he was rejected almost every day, made her admire his perseverance a bit. In a way, being asked out by Potter had become a point in her daily routine. Every time he missed it, she felt a little uneasy, as if something was wrong. Maybe she'd just gotten used to it. Still, it was kind of annoying. And worse, itscaredall the niceboys away. Once in a while someone tried asking her out, butas soon asit started getting more serious, some mysterious "accident" happened to the boy, and he never spoke to her again. Of course she had confronted Potter and his friends, the "Marauders" as they called themselves. But they'd just denied everything and claimed to beinnocent. And she could never prove anything. It seemed as if her only choices were saying yes to Potter or dying a virgin. The thought that immediately came up in her mind made her shudder and blush.

Lily had now entered the common room through the portrait of the fat lady. Sighing, she threw herself into one of the armchairs opposite of her friend Sophie. The other girl looked up.

"Trouble with Potter again?" Lily nodded, and her friend looked at her sympathetically. They had been friends since their first year, and Sophie knew everything about the whole Potter affair.

"Transformed the corridor into a slimy slide just to be able to catch me and sweep me into his arms."

"That is such a poor excuse to try and touch you! I thought that boy claimed himself smart!" Lily snorted.

"Smart? That boy claims himself a genius. And a sex god at that. I can't believe he stops me from dating, while he sleeps around the whole school."

"Actually, he doesn't. He hasn't so much as hugged another girl for the last two years, let alone done anything else." Sophie replied.

"Whose side are you on!" Lily snapped. For a moment, there was a slight tension, but then the girls laughed and forgot about it. But even though Sophie agreed with her friend about Potter being arrogant, maybe there was more to the boy than Lily wanted to see.

meanwhile, on the other side of the room

"You did that? Boy, that's brilliant! The perfect excuse for touching her! And she even has to say thank you!" Sirius exclaimed after he'd heard the little episode in the hall from James. He and the two other marauders hadn't been able to see it because they'd had detention with Professor McGonagall for a prank they hadplayed on two Slytherin prefects for taking points from them. They had dusted every single portrait in the classroom corridors for two hours!

"Prongs, that's not brilliant, that's simply lame! Sure, you got to hold her for three minutes, but do you honestly think she'll start liking you if you act like some second year? You'll have to prove her that you've matured. And that simply is the wrong way!" Remus shook his head. He knew the brave, intelligent James behind the marauder façade, and he was sure Lily Evans would like that other James, too. James just had to discover and show his other side. Until then,Remus could do nothing but stop his friendfrom bigger mistakes. For example like when that Ravenclaw seventh year had asked Lily out several times, and James wanted to go and beat him up. Lily would have never even looked at James again if he had done that. ButRemus alsoknew that stopping Lily from going out wasn't enough. James also had to convince her that he was the right one for her. And that would be some piece of work.

Sophie and Lily were sitting right across the common room. Lily was occupied with her arithmancy essay, but Sophie had just finished her last homework. Now she was comfortably snuggled into her armchair, playing idly with her cat Lavender and looking around the room. Her gaze fell onto the marauders, who were sitting in their usual corner. James was telling something, probably what he had done to Lily earlier in the hall. The others were listening intently. When James had finished telling his story, Sirius jumped up and clapped his friend on the shoulder. Peter looked very excited, but Remus frowned and looked at James pensively. Then he said something that made James look a little crushed. Sophie looked at Remus as he stood up and began talking to James animatedly. She always wondered why Remus hung out with James and Sirius. He was so different from them: Intelligent, quiet, polite… She also admired how eloquently he could talk, and the way his eyes sparkled when something preoccupied him, which was happening right now. She wondered what he was talking about.

"Listen, James. You have to stop pulling these pranks on her, and start acting like an adult. She can only start to like you when you give her the chance to change her picture of you. You know there's more to you than your reputation as a prankster and playboy, but she doesn't."

"You know, if you were anyone else, I would have punched you for saying that."

"I know. That's why I'm saying it and not someone else. I know you don't see why you should change for her, and that you think you are irresistible-"

"Which I am!"

"-but she doesn't think so. And you don't even have to change what you are. Just change your behaviour towards her. For example, stop asking her out, until she wants you to."

Sirius wolf-whistled.

"Look who's talking, the master of seduction. You know what women want, Remus!" Remus threw his friend a stern look, and the black-haired boy immediately fell silent. Peter laughed.

"You know, Remus, sometimes you act like Professor McGonagall. You'll certainly become a teacher here in Hogwarts one day."

"Yes, of course. A werewolf as a teacher. Then the students would learn about the dark creatures from one of them!"

"Come on, Remus, don't be so bitter. We all know you're great, and everyone who doesn't believe that just because you're getting a little wild once in a month is not even worth looking at." James said. And it was the truth. He admired his sensible, practical friend. If Remus hadn't been there, he would have done more stupid things than were good for him. And the same went for Sirius.

Sophie still looked at Remus pensively. In spite of his good reputation, she knew the boy had some dark secret. She had noticed how he got sick once in a month, and how his grey eyes were already surrounded by deep lines that made them look older than they should have. She was itching to find out what it was that made him so earnest and bitter, so different from his careless friends.

"Hey, Moony, look at Evans' friend, giving you the glad eyes!" Sirius had noticed Sophie watching Remus.

"She's probably got a crush on you or prongs!" Remus said in an indifferent tone. Still he looked up. He liked the brown-haired girl. She was sitting beside him in potions, and they often talked. She was smart and funny, and always had a little smile tugging at her lips. She wasn't careless or naïve, but she had an optimism that made him feel as if everything wasn't as complicated as it seemed at the moment. She smiled at him, then quickly looked away again.

"Yeah, of course! Come on, moony, don't be ridiculous! She doesn't even talk to padfoot and me. Trust me, the girl likes you. Why don't you try and ask her out?"

"That would be nice! Hey Sophie, wanna snog a bit? I just have to go before the moon comes out, or I'll become a wolf and rip you apart? Yeah, I can imagine that."

"Moony, you're just as hopeless as prongs here! Why couldn't you have gotten a little bit more self-confidence and James a little bit less!"

"Because if I had, I would be just as bad as you, and then no one would stop you from ruining your lives or pull you out of bad situations. I guess that's the price, hm!"

"Remus, don't be pathetic. You sound like some bitter old weirdo. Just because of one night in the month, you don't have to put off your whole life. Now go get yourself the girl and have a little fun, for heaven's sake!"

Sirius pushed him in Sophie's direction, and before he could even think about what he wanted to say to her, he was standing in front of her.

_Note to self: Kill Sirius!_ Remus thought.

"Um, hi, er, so, how are you doing with that Transfiguration essay?" He stuttered. But Sophie smiled at him encouragingly, so he sat down beside her.

"Actually, I'm already finished. It wasn't nearly as difficult as that one about the Transfiguration of magical creatures last week, don't you think?"

"Oh no, I thought this one was more difficult. I just couldn't think of any useful ways to transfigure a cat. All I came up with was a spell for a mugglepopcorn machine, and that's not exactly useful, is it?" Sophie giggled.

"That depends. If you own a stand on a fair…" They both laughed, and Remus relaxed.

"But honestly, I don't believe you would have any difficulties with homework. I mean, you're the best in almost every class, apart from Lily."

"I guess it's only like this in transfiguration. It's not that I find it difficult, I just don't see the sense in transfiguring a teaspoon into a tuning-fork or something like that. I can't even sing." Again, they laughed, and the conversation went on smoothly. They didn't even notice when Lily put away her books and went up to the girls' dormitory.

Later that evening, in the boys' dormitory the boys lay on their beds dreaming, one of them of red hair and green eyes, the other of dark brown hair and blue eyes. Sirius was fantasizing about how a certain blonde Ravenclaw girl would look in a bikini, and Peter was dreading potions the next day.

A/N: I've been working on this story for a long time, but I've always had the feeling it's not ready to be posted yet. I've finally decided to do it, anyway, so please let me know what you think.

Also, this story originally contained lyrics at the beginning of each chapter. Unfortunately, posting lyrics is not allowed here at Fanfiction, so I had to take them out, even though they're very important in creating a certain atmosphere to the chapters. I will try to post this story somewhere else, if you'd like to see the complete version. The song for this chapter was by Sarah Brendel and I think it is called "Some say".


	2. Images and beliefs

Images and beliefs

The next morning brought along a curtain of rain and a big fight in the common room. Or rather above the common room. James and Lily were standing on the stairs to their dormitories and shouting at each other above the heads of the other Gryffindors.

"James Nathan Potter! Did _you_ lower the neckline of every single blouse I possess?" Lily shouted, the colour of her face matching her fiery hair.

"No I didn't! You know I would never do that. I would charm them so that they'd only look lower in my eyes."

"You pervert! Don't deny it was you! You probably just didn't know the charm for making it your private joke, so you settled for everyone staring at me, hm!" Now James got angry, too.

"I always know the charm I need! Why don't you believe me when I tell you I didn't do it?"

"Why? You want to know why? Maybe because you played pranks on everyone since your first year? Maybe because you constantly try tricking me into something by telling me lies? Maybe because you wouldn't even stop from blackmailing me into going out with you, if only you had any blackmail material?"

"That's not true! I would never blackmail you, I only play pranks on people who deserve it, and I never lied to you. Maybe I changed the truth a little bit, but I never lied to your face, and I will never do that!"

"You know, I'm not so sure about that!"

"Because you don't want to! You've made yourself a little picture of me, all in black and white, and you're not willing to even check if something could be wrong there. You aren't as open-minded as you want yourself to be. You've got prejudices, and you're too stubborn, or proud, or intolerant to change them. You judge people after your first impression, and you don't even spend so much as a second glance on them! You're no saint, either, Evans!"

"I won't listen to your insults anymore. If you'll excuse me now, I have to go and change back my clothes that you so generously made everyone's panorama window!" With that, she spun around on her heels and went back into her dormitory. James snorted angrily and rushed out of the common room. Everyone knew he'd skip breakfast and go down to the Quidditch pitch to let off a little steam while soaring through the air on his brand new "Magnus 75".

Remus turned towards Sirius, a sorrowful frown on his face.

"That was hard!"

"But it was the truth! She only sees parts of him, and she doesn't even give him a chance to get to know him better."

"I know. But I don't think screaming her faults into her face helped improve his situation."

"We have to help him."

"I know. But how?"

"What about we contact her little friend, you know, the brown-haired one you fancy-"

"I don't!"

"- and ask her to help us?"

"I don't know. What if she thinks the same about James? Her and Lily are best friends, so I'm sure they share their opinion about that."

"Well, if she really thinks the same way as Evans, you have to convince her that she's wrong. I'm sure with a little effort you can have a very convincing effect on her." Remus blushed.

"Alright, I'll try. But please, stop planting false hope into me, okay?" Sirius nodded, and Remus turned around and walked out of the common room. Sirius looked after his retreating friend sadly. The young man seemed to think he didn't deserve to be happy just because of his little "fault". Which, in Sirius' eyes, was completely ridiculous.

The rest of the day passed in silence – literally. Lily snapped at everyone who tried to start a conversation with her except for Sophie, and by ten o'clock, everyone had given up on communicating with her. James didn't talk at all, neither with his friends nor with anyone else. By the time they went into charms, their last class for the day, they all were near to losing their heads.

Then in charms, the change came. Professor Flitwick called Patrick Fitzgregor, a fellow Gryffindor sixth year, to the front to show them a new charm: The Prior Incantato-spell, that showed the last spell that had been done with a wand. The teacher tapped his wand against Patrick's and shouted "Prior Incantato!" In front of their astounded eyes, the dusty picture of several items of clothing appeared. Lily gasped when she realized what she was seeing: Her blouses being sewed a little bit more "openhearted"! The next one to understand exactly what spell it was that Patrick had last used was Sirius. He laughed out loud and fell off his chair. His bark-like laughter echoed through the silent classroom for a moment, then the rest of the class started laughing, too. The only ones who didn't laugh were Patrick, Lily and James. The former two had gotten beet red, James bore a stony expression. When she was able to breathe again, Sophie turned towards Lily.

"You do realize you'll have to apologize to James now, don't you?" Lily looked at her incredulously.

"Apologize? Why should I? It could have been him, you know. He didn't exactly deny it."

"Yes, he did! He said, loud and clear, "I didn't do it!" That should convince you, shouldn't it? Now, after class, you go to James and apologize, and if I have to drag you there!" Lily sighed, but accepted her fate. After most of the students had spilled out of the room after class, she walked up to James.

"Potter? I just wanted to tell you that…that I…that you… I mean, I'm sorry for accusing you of hexing my clothes. I now know you didn't do it, and I'm sorry that I thought so."

"Wow, wait a minute. I have to memorize every detail of this particular experience: You apologizing to me! That's great! That's just delicious!" Lily snorted.

"So, do you accept my apology?"

"Well, I'm not so sure about that… what's your peace offer?"

"Didn't catch that?"

"What are you going to do to make me forgive you?"

"Let me think for a minute. Hm, what could I do? What about that: Nothing?"

"I've got an idea. What about you go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend?" Lily just turned and walked away.

"Oh come on. I'm not that bad!" He called after her.

When Lily reached Sophie, the other girl cast her a reproachful look.

"That was mean, you know!"

"What? That was not mean. I apologized."

"Yes, you did. And then you rejected him again. He didn't even do anything to you, he just asked."

"Just cut it, okay? I don't want to go out with him, and that's it. What do you want, anyway? I apologized. Now let's go."

Just that instant, Patrick appeared beside her.

"Lily, wait. I wanted to apologize for charming your clothes. It was silly of me."

"That's okay. It wasn't that bad, anyway. I've still got shirts and jumpers." She smiled at the handsome blonde boy.

"Still, I want to make it up to you. What about I'll buy you a drink or something at Hogsmeade next weekend?" Lily smiled brightly.

"I'd love to! But, wait, are you asking me out?"

"I was hoping you wouldn't figure me out this easily, but yes. You'll still come, won't you?" Lily nodded reassuringly, then smiled one last time and walked away.

James had been watching the whole scene. The expression on his face had changed from contentment to sheer bloodthirstiness. He would have launched himself on Patrick, hadn't Sirius and Remus held him back.

"That's it. I'll kill him. She almost rips off my head for hexing her clothes, but when he does it, she just smiles and agrees to go out with him!" He managed to wriggle free of his friends' grasp and took after Patrick, who was already way down the corridor. When he reached him and turned him around, the other boy didn't even have time to think before James' fist hit his jaw and he stumbled backwards a few steps. But he caught himself quickly and placed a fist in James stomach. James gasped, but in his furious adrenaline rush, he didn't feel the pain. Before anyone knew what was going on, the two boys were in the middle of a full-grown fight. Finally, someone shouted "stupefy!" and the two rivals fell down stunned. Sirius took a step forward and glanced around the circle of spectators.

"None of you just saw this scene, do you understand me? Not a word to any of the teachers. Now let's get those two out of here! And you all go on your ways and forget about what happened!" He motioned towards Remus, and they carefully placed levitating charms on the two bodies. After the on-lookers had gone, they disappeared into a small passageway that led straight to Gryffindor tower. There, he lowered his wand and let James fall to the floor.

"Listen, moony. I'll bring prongs here back to the dorm. You'll stay and wait with Patrick. When I'm gone, free him and try to persuade him not to tell the teachers of James' attack, alright? When he has agreed, follow us to the tower. I'll take care of James."

"Please, try to talk some sense into him. You're the only one he listens to."

Sirius nodded, picked James up again and disappeared into the dark corridor. Remus waited for another five minutes, until he was sure Sirius had reached the tower. Then he took the spell off Patrick and quickly healed his black eye and bleeding lip, before he carefully started to apologize for James' behaviour.

Meanwhile, Sirius had laid James down onto his bed in the sixth year dormitory, and woke him up from the spell.

"Why did you stun me? I was winning! I was showing that git not to bother Lily!"

"I stunned you because you were so close to being seen by a teacher, and that would have earned you a month's worth of detention. Besides, you were not winning! That boy's a lot bigger and broader than you are, he could easily squash you to jelly."

"Still! He's a git and doesn't deserve her. Did you see how he leered at her?"

"I know someone who constantly stares at her, too."

"But I never look at her as if I wanted to eat her! I respect her."

"Oh, stop babbling. You're even more stubborn and stupid than I thought."

With that, he left the room, slamming the door after him. In the common room, Lily stopped him.

"Is it true?"

"Is what true?"

"That James attacked Patrick because he asked me out."

"Well, what do you think? To his defence, I want to say that Patrick hit back." Lily just snorted and ran up the stairs to the boys dorm.

"Potter! Did you just attack Patrick?" She shouted as she burst through the door. James was lying on his bed, facing the wall. He didn't even move at her voice.

"Potter! Answer me!" She demanded while walking towards his bed.

"What do you have to say to your defence?" All of a sudden, he leapt up towards her and grabbed her wrists. She struggled, but he grasped her tightly.

"I don't have anything to say to you, Lily Evans, as long as you treat me like you do at the moment. I've never done anything to deserve that."

"What do you mean? Of course you did. What about you constantly annoying me? And attacking Patrick? Explain yourself!" She was trembling at the sight of pure rage in his dark eyes, but still held her back straight and her voice firm.

"Patrick doesn't need you to defend his honour, for you are not one to talk about honour or moral. And I don't need to explain myself to some slut. Now get out of here. I don't ever want to see you near me again." With that, he let go of her and she stumbled backwards. He flopped back onto his bed and stared at the ceiling until she left the room. She went back down to the common room, where Sophie, Patrick, Remus, Sirius and Peter were sitting. They stared at her silently as she walked over to them, rubbing her aching wrists.

"Now he's gone completely nutters! James attacked me!" No one answered.

"Didn't you hear me? He's violent, he's dangerous! He called me a slut, and nearly hit me !"

"Lily, he's not violent, he just doesn't know what to do anymore." Remus spoke up.

"And don't even try to tell us he hurt you, because he would never do that." Sirius defended his friend. Lily looked to Sophie, pleading for help. But the dark-haired girl just shook her head.

"This time you've gone too far, Lily." Lily still searched for help frantically.

"Patrick? Don't you believe me?"

"I don't know. I just know that you're evil." With that, he stood up and left the common room. The others followed him, not giving Lily as much as a second glance.

A/N: The song for this chapter was "All I really want" by Alanis Morissette, or parts of it. Thanks for reviewing!


	3. A new beginning?

A new beginning?

The rest of the school year was the worst time Lily had ever had in her entire life. Sophie barely talked to her anymore, the marauders ignored her entirely. James didn't ask her out anymore, and the other boys avoided her. The climax (or rather anti-climax, since it was the deepest point in her journey down) was a letter she'd received this morning at breakfast, telling her that her father had been killed last night by a horde of Death Eaters. Her sister Petunia had been at her boyfriend's, so she'd survived. Lily had already talked to Dumbledore about her future, and it turned out her father had left the house and some money to her and her sister so that they could keep on living alone. They didn't really have any other choice, anyway. Their mother had died when Lily was a baby, and both parents didn't have any siblings. She felt strangely numb, for she hadn't even once cried the whole day through. She was too busy organising all kinds of stuff. She'd quickly flooed home to help her sister, but Petunia had assured her that she could do everything alone and that she'd already taken care of the funeral. Lily had been hoping that they would open up to each other again, something that hadn't happened anymore since they were ten, but she found her sister even more cold and distant, and so she'd returned. Now she was sitting by the lake, feeling as empty and lonely as she never had in her entire life. Not only had she now lost both her parents (and probably her sister, too, at least mentally), but she'd also pushed away the only friends she'd had. Thinking about the events that had led to it, she realized that the others had been right. She had gone too far. And worse: James had been right by calling her a slut. The way she played with his feelings and used other boys to make him even more jealous hadn't been right. Or the way she always made James reproaches for everything and wasn't willing to forgive him anything. The way she wasn't willing to readjust her picture of him. She really was biased, which made her no better than any of the Slytherins. Which reminded her of the terrible threat that was looming over them, the dark shadow that was Voldemort. It had been far away, only a danger to others, but not anymore. It had reached out for her, and sooner or later, it would come to get her.Suddenly a feeling of panic mixed with the loneliness and regret and the grief for her father washed over her, and she sank down onto the muddy earth, sobbing hysterically.

Suddenly, someone sat down beside her, laid an arm around her and began rubbing her back. Lily looked up into Sophie's blue eyes.

"Why are you here?" she asked, not sure whether she should be relieved or angry.

"I heard about your father, and I decided it was time to stop ignoring you. I'm still your friend, you know." That caused Lily to cry even harder. Sophie just pulled her head onto her shoulder and let her sob into her robes for a long time, until all of Lily's guilt and loneliness had been washed out. After that, they walked back up to the castle and went to dinner together. Everyone noticed how red and puffy Lily's eyes were, but no one said anything about it. From that day on, Lily and Sophie were inseparable again.

A/N: The song for this chapter is "I'll be there for you" by The Rembrandts. As some of you might know, it is the title songto my favourite ever TV show, Friends. Sorry this chapter is so short.


	4. Cupid's arrow

Cupid's arrow

The rest of the year passed quickly. The Marauders still didn't talk to Lily, but one evening, Remus went over to Sophie. They had spent more time together over the past weeks, since Sophie felt lonely without her best friend. They'd talked a lot, and gotten to know each other better. But Sophie still hadn't found out his secret, she'd just gotten more sure that he had one, and that it really burdened him. Why else would he just not respond to her attemptsat flirting?

"Hey, can I talk to you for a second? Outside, maybe?" Sophie put down her book.

"Sure." After the portrait hole had closed after them, she asked

"So, what do you want to talk about?"

"You made up with Lily?"

"Yes, obviously. Though I think "made up" sounds a little bit as if we were a couple. Let's say we're on friendly terms again." Remus smiled.

"Though she still has to apologize to James, but that's a little early now. For both of them." They stepped out of the Great Hall onto the Hogwarts grounds and walked towards the lake. It was still bright and warm outside even though the sun had set, and they sat down on the grass near the lake.

"You too think they'll get together eventually, don't you?"

"Yes. They're made for each other. They just don't know it yet."

"What makes you think that?"

"I don't know. It's just a feeling. It's ridiculous, I know, and a bit difficult to picture these two not fighting, but as lovers, but still… I can't get rid of the feeling that there's something waiting for them, something big and fateful. It's like they were destined to be together, to be something important to the world." She laughed softly. "That sounds strange, I know."

"No, it doesn't. I've got the same feeling. Have you ever wondered if you've got the gift? I mean, if you're a seer?" She looked at him earnestly.

"I've never told anyone, but yes. I've asked myself the same question, and Mrs Clearwood asked me in Divination, too. I can't see clear visions, but I often see things in dreams, and I can sense it if something's about to happen. You know, that day when Lily and James had their big fight, I already woke up with a bad feeling. I kinda knew something like this would happen eventually. I had tried to warn her for weeks, told her to give him a chance, to at least try and understand him. But she didn't. That's why I was so hard with her. I wanted to give her time to think about it herself."

"It was right. She needed this, and you couldn't have helped her." Sophie snickered.

"We sound as if we were her parents."

"You know, sometimes I feel as if I were at least forty. To be exact, every time I'm around James and Sirius. I'm always the sensible one, the one who stops the others from going too far. I know someone has to do it, but sometimes I feel like I'm missing out on all the fun." A grin crept over Sophie's face.

"Well, then let's go and have us some fun. What do you want to do?"

"I don't know. Maybe eat something. I'm a little hungry."

"Eat something? Well, that's not the most exciting thing I can think of. Besides, we don't have any food."

"We don't. But the house elves in the kitchen have. Wait a moment." He pointed his wand in the direction of Gryffindor tower and quickly said "Accio James' cloak". Before Sophie could ask what he meant, something came zooming towards them, something bright and shimmering. Remus caught the object, unfolded the silver cloth and threw it over them. Sophie gasped.

"James has got an invisibility cloak?" Remus nodded.

"Yes. Now let's go get us something to eat."

"Do you know where the kitchens are?" Sophie asked incredulously.

"Of course! We're their most frequent visitors. Follow me. But you have to stay close, it's a bit difficult to walk under the cloak." With that, he took her hand and led her on.

_Wow, this really is fun,_ Sophie thought. She was so close to him that she could hear his heartbeat and smell his scent, a mixture of soap and forest. It was uncomfortably warm under the cloak, but the hand that he was holding prickled pleasantly, and she felt very safe and comfortable with him. Because of her distractedness, she didn't notice when he announced that they had arrived, and walked into him when he stopped. She nearly fell down, but he quickly caught her.

"You alright? I'm sorry, but I warned you, didn't I?" She nodded and smiled.

"Now, watch if you ever want to get something to eat at night, just come here and tickle the pear in this picture, like so" he tickled the pear, who started giggling, and the picture swung aside to reveal the entrance to a huge kitchen with several herds and ovens along the walls and four big tables that exactly matched the tables in the Great Hall. Sophie gasped with astonishment. But she didn't have time to recover, because all of a sudden, one of the house elves that had been working around the kitchen saw them.

"Master Lupin's here, with a young lady!"

Within seconds, they were surrounded by smiling house elves who shoved sweets into their hands. Remus held up his hand.

"Wait, wait! Could we have something to eat, but in a little basket or something? We want tohave a picnic."

_A picnic, that's a great idea! And soooo romantic…_Sophie thought while she watched the house elves hurry around in the big kitchen. Within a few minutes, they held a basket full of delicious food. One of the house elves brought them a woollen blanket and pushed it into Sophie's hands.

"Who's the young lady Master Lupin has brought with him?" he asked.

"That's a friend from my year, Sophie Hunter." The house elf bowed in front of her.

"You is very lucky to be with Master Lupin. He is a fine young man." Both teenagers blushed at that comment. Soon, they had more juice and pastries and cake and chocolate and salad than they could carry, so they said goodbye to the house elves. Outside the kitchen, they put on the cloak again and made their way outside to the lake. It was now well past curfew, and it slowly got darker. They went a little way along the edge of the forbidden forest until they were out of eyesight from the castle. There they laid out the blanket and sat down. They slowly made their way through the food, talking about this and that. All of a sudden, she remembered something.

"When we were talking about me having these feelings about things, you said you felt it too. Are you a seer, too?"

"No. I don't have any such talents. I just have a good intuition, like... animal instinct." He stopped breathing for an instant. Had he said too much? Had she figured out his secret? That would be terrible. He was just beginning to build a friendship with her, starting to feel a bit more for her, and he hoped she felt the same. If she knew what …creature he was, she wouldn't want to be with him. Or would she? Maybe she wouldn't care. She was an intelligent girl, surely she wouldn't share the superstitions? He sighed. She watched him closely, sure that she had gotten a lot closer to his secret, and somewhere in the back of her mind, something was screaming the answer, but it didn't get through. But for now, she was content just to be with him here, and didn't want to think about it. At the beginning, she was only curious, but now, she didn't want to know the secret anymore if it really was dark. She was afraid it could ruin whatever they had. And she sure didn't want that, now that she'd gotten to know him better. She decided to push that thought into the back of her mind and just enjoy their time there. She changed towards some lighter topic, and they talked and laughed on for hours. It was a beautiful, warm summer night; tiny fairies dancing in the mild breeze that whispered in the grass and tenderly tousled their hair. They were leaning against a tree trunk, their sides touching. From time to time, shooting stars sailed over the dark blue sky.

"You know what they say about shooting stars?"

"You can make a wish when you see one?"

"That too. But also, it is said that every time you can see a shooting star, cupid's arrow has hit somewhere."

"That's a nice story. Though I don't really see many shooting stars."

"Yeah, me neither. But still…" they were silent for a while, until Sophie got bolder and took his hand. She turned it around and began to draw along the lines with her finger. Remus immediately held his breath as he felt the tickling touch of her cool, small fingers on his hand. She was now so close to him that he could smell her hair. It held a very unique scent, a mixture of raspberries and a very faint note of mint. He closed his eyes and shivered at the touch of her lingering fingertips in his palm.

"You know, you've got a very deep fate line! All your other lines are very faint, it's just this one." His eyes snapped back open.

"Are you listening to me at all?"

"Yes, I've got a very strong fate line. What does that tell you?"

"We had that in Divination ages ago, didn't you pay attention?" She asked in mock seriousness.

"I never pay attention in Divination, I'm afraid. The prophecies James and Sirius make are a lot funnier than the real ones. Besides, I don't think I want to know what the future holds."

"Really? I'm not so sure about that. Sometimes I'd like to have a glimpse at it, to see if all my "have great career, marry wonderful man, live in beautiful house with said man and several nice children"-dreams will come true. Wouldn't you?"

"No, I think I wouldn't want to know what the future holds. Let's live for the here and now, not for the past or the future."

"You're right. At the moment, the here and now is just too good to worry about anything else."

They were silent for a moment, just enjoying the silence and the near-darkness of this midsummer night. Her hand was still entwined with his, and he softly stroked the back of her hand.

_Wow, Moony, this time you're really in for it, aren't you?_ He thought to himself. He couldn't help but notice that his affection for Sophie grew stronger with every minute they spent together. Suddenly she snickered.

"What?"

"You know what would be so romantic that it would be almost cheesy?"

"If an orchestra was playing soft melodies in the background?"

"That too. But I meant if there was a full moon." He flinched, and immediately shot back to reality. There was still this problem to be thought of. _Now, here's a thought: How about you tell her that you're a werewolf first and then let her decide if she still wants to be with you, and not create romantic situations and hold her hand? Besides, you're making yourself false hope. So stop that right now and get back to your room and decide what to do before anything happens. Like maybe she wants to kiss you or something._ Remus listened to his inner monologue grumpily, but decided his conscious was right. He quickly stood up.

"I think we should go back to Gryffindor tower. Tomorrow's the last day, and we should at least have a little sleep." She seemed a little disappointed, but let him help her up. They quickly brought the basket back to the kitchen and went up to Gryffindor tower. The whole time while they were walking under the invisibility cloak she hoped he would take her hand again, but he didn't. Something had changed in his behaviour, he was distinct, almost cool. She just couldn't figure out what had caused this sudden change. Before she could come to a conclusion, they had reached the common room. He threw off the cloak and wanted to walk up to his dormitory, but she quickly stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you for the wonderful evening, Remus. Goodnight." Then she walked away, leaving Remus to stare at her retreating back until she had turned the corner and was out of sight. He had the suspicion that he wouldn't get any sleep at all this night.

The next morning, Sophie was rudely awakened from her dreams (including a fiddling Remus on a moonlit picnic blanket) by a loud voice (belonging to Lily) and blinding light, flooding in through the curtains that had been yanked open by said Lily, who, by the way, was extremely angry.

"There you are! Where have you been last night? I was worried sick! And why are you still in your clothes from yesterday?" After she had gotten over the initial grumbling and yawning, Sophie was able to calm Lily down a little.

"I had the most beautiful night with Remus!" Lily looked shocked, and she went on quickly.

"Not what you think! We were talking, and then we went to the kitchen, got us some food andhad a picnic by the lake."

"The whole night long!"

"Yes. We talked, and it was all warm and not very dark, and I think I'm in love…."

Lily bounced up and down beside her excitedly.

"Really? Did anything happen? Did you kiss?"

"No. But we held hands…" Sophie exclaimed with a dreamy expression on her face.

"That is so romantic. Tell me everything. What did you talk about?"

"Oh, you know, this and that… everything! Oh Lily, what am I going to do? Tomorrow, we'll go home for the holidays and I won't see him for two months. And besides, there still is his secret…"

"D'you really think he's got one?"

"Yes. Now I'm even more sure. And I'm determined to find out what it is. I won't let some dark secret get in the way of my love!"

"That's the spirit! Now come on get up, you still have to pack. And I'm sure you'll want to get Remus' address, don't you?"

Meanwhile in the boys' dorm:

"Hey moony, get your lazy ass out of bed! You have to pack your trunk."

"By the way, night-reveller, where have you been last night?" James cut in while walking by.

"Outside." Remus was way too tired and grumpy to talk much, so he settled on one-word-sentences.

"And why have you been outside?"

"Picnic." His friends looked at him as if he was crazy.

"You were having a picnic – on your own?"

"I never said that, did I?" Remus sat up, rubbing his eyes and grinning sleepily, but highly contented with himself.

"So who were you with? Some hot girl?"

"Actually, it was Sophie."

"Wow, congratulations man. So you finally got her. Did you do something?"

"No, we just talked." James and Sirius threw each other a look.

"You know that would have been the perfect opportunity for a little snog, don't you?"

"Oh come on! There's more that you can do with a girl besides snogging." Now his friends were grinning from ear to ear.

"You don't say! Really? Well, how much more did you do?" Remus cast them an angry glance.

"We just talked, okay? I mean, she's just started to get to know me better. And I haven't even told her about me yet. I can't possibly expect her to just jump into bed with me." Sirius wanted to reply something, probably from his own experience, but James cut in with a serious voice.

"Do you want to tell her?" Remus nodded.

"Yes, I do.

"Wow, you really like her, don't you?"

"Yes. And now there's the summer holidays, and I won't see her for two months. What if she doesn't even know me afterwards?"

"That's not likely to happen, you know. You don't just forget people. But what about you write her letters to remind her?"

"Good idea. I'll do that."

"Do you have her address?"

"No."

"You should get it. We can sit with them on the train, that'll give you plenty of time to get it."

"That'd be great. But you don't have to sit there just because of me. I mean, Lily will be there, too."

"I have to forgive her some time, might as well do it now. Or I can just not talk to her. Besides, I think I've still got a thing for her." Remus grinned.

"You know, in a way, you're even sadder than me."

"You're both sad. You should just get a good snog and stop all this worrying." With that, Sirius stood up and went packing again. After what seemed like hours of chaos, their trunks were finally ready and brought to the Hogwarts entrance, where they werepacked onto the carriages and brought to the train while the students had their last meal at Hogwarts. Lily and Sophie had already finished their meal when the boys came in, but as they walked by, Sophie smiled at Remus.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" He grinned.

"Not really, no. Someone talked me into having a midnight picnic."

"Well, let's hope you at least enjoyed your picnic." She winked and walked out of the great Hall. Remus looked after her for a moment, then followed his friends to their usual spot on the Gryffindor table.

"You know, it's kinda strange to watch you flirting." Remus just scowled at Sirius, then sat down and began to eat with an appetite.

"Didn't you eat the whole night long?"

"You know, flirting makes me hungry."

"Never experienced that."

"Has to be the wolf in me." Remus answered through a mouthful of porridge. James and Sirius smiled. Their friend had to be in a very good mood when he made jokes about his animal form.


	5. Ideas and train rides

Ideas and trainrides

Meanwhile Lily and Sophie made their usual last day round ofthe school groundsto saygoodbye to all their favourite places. They had kept this tradition up since their first year, especially Lily, who didn't get to see (or do) anymagic at home.

"Just imagine, next year will be our last." Both girls sighed.

"We really had one hell of a time here, didn't we?"

"Yes. But I promise you, next year will be the top of our whole school career."

"Are you sensing that with your special seer qualities?"

"No. I've been planning this after I got back last night. I'll tell you what we'll do: At home, we will both make a list of things we never did before, with at least ten things on it, both what we want to do and what we are not so keen on. And then next year, we'll realize as much of it as we can."

"Sophie, that's brilliant. We could show the lists to each other, and then the other has to pick out something that you absolutely have to do."

"That'd be like a year-long game of truth or dare!"

"You know, now I'm really looking forward to it. How about this: Both of us think of one thing the other has to do, no matter if it is on his list or not?"

"Okay. But don't be too hard on me."

"Of course I will. It'll be my revenge for every stupid thing you did this year!"

"So I guess it'll have something to do with James Potter?"

"You bet it will!"

"God help me!" Both girls laughed, then quickly hugged the unicorn in the school stables one last time before running back to the castle. And not a minute too late. The other students had already come out and climbed the carriages. There was only one left, and they hastily climbed in, ignoring the astonished looks of the second years who were probably wondering why the two sixth years would want to sit with them. Because of their carriage arriving the last, they didn't have much choice on which compartment to take for they were almost all full. After having been rejected in a long row of compartments, they finally opened the door to the last compartment.

"Well, hello there, fair ladies! May we offer you a seat?" Sirius joked. Sophie hesitated for a moment upon seeing the look of desperation on Lily's face, then shrugged and stepped in.

"You may indeed, gentlemen. Window seats, please!" with that, she resolutely walked towards the window, pulling Lily behind her. Sirius and Peter gave up their seats at the window. Sirius grinned at Sophie's cheekiness, while Lily was just astounded. What had happened to her friend Sophie, the quiet, studious, sensible girl? She didn't recognize this girl who was flirting in the Great Hall and joking with the marauders. Her thoughts were stopped when she was pushed into her seat and found herself next to Sirius, who was grinning at her like a madman.

"What's so funny?" she asked, annoyed.

"Oh, nothing. It's just that you both have hay and leaves in your hair, which makes you look as if you had just had a good snogging sessionin the hay." Lily and Sophie blushed at the implication, while defending themselves:

"We were just saying goodbye to the unicorns!"

"Not in my head!" Sophie kicked the grinning Sirius in the shin and Lily shot him a death glare while both girls tried to get the hay out of their hair. Sophie quickly cast a dewrinkling spell on both their robes, then sat down contentedly. The next few minutes both said nothing. Sophie looked out the window and Lily had taken out a book and was starting to read the awfully thick volume.

"What are you reading?" Sirius closed the book so he could look at the cover. "Hogwarts, a history? Great book. Extremely useful."

Lily gaped at the dark-haired marauder. "Y o u read "Hogwarts, a history"? You're joking, right?"

"No. As I said, it is extremely useful. Taught me everything I needed to know about the school."

"Well, not everything. Most of it you got by the "learning by doing"-method." Remus cut in.

"You? I do believe that a certain Mr. Lupin also engaged in one or the other night tour, or am I wrong?" Remus snickered, and his friends looked at him, astonished. It was indeed a very unusual thing for him to do.

"Well, if I did so, then only to protect you from hurting yourselves." Sophie and Lily looked confused. The boys seemed to have forgotten about them, talking about their pranks and nightly strolls freely.

"Hello? We're still here, you know, and we absolutely don't want to know anything about what exactly you did here! It would make us your accomplices, and we sure don't want to be that."

"Oh really? I promise you, once you've participated in one of the great marauders' pranks, you'll come back for more, whether you want to or not!" Sophie looked at Sirius daringly.

"Oh really? Well, we'll see to that next year. Inform me when your first prank starts and I'll be there." Sirius looked at her unbelievingly for a moment, then held out his hand.

"Deal?"

"Deal!" Lily had tried to get her friend's attention during the whole conversation, but had failed. Sophie kept talking to Sirius pleasantly, so after a while she gave up and buried herself in her book again. The time passed in a blur, and suddenly, the lady with the sweets cart arrived. While Lily was still searching for money in her pockets, but found she had spent everything during the year, James had bought a whole heap of sweets of every sort and laid it out on a tray he enchanted to levitate in the air. To her astonishment, the other boys just helped themselves to sweets without even asking. After a while, Sirius offered them some too.

"Just take as much of it as you want, it's for everyone. Prongs does that every year, it's sort of like a ritual."

"And before you can think I'm noble or something, it's just my father's money. Now that I maid it clear that I use the family fortune to show off in front of others, you can add that to your list of prejudices." He said it nonchalantly and not aimed at someone in particular, but Lily immediately knew it was directed to her. Tears welled inside her eyes as she stumbled out of the compartment, slamming the door shut after her. The others turned towards James.

"That was inappropriate. She didn't even say anything."

"Yes, now it's your turn to give her a chance." Sophie said nothing as James was lectured by his friends. She didn't want to loose the marauders' newly won trust by meddling in their private conversation. Scowling, James stood up.

"Alright, alright, I'll go and apologise. But that's it." With that, he stood up and strode out of the compartment. Soon he found Lily, slumped together in the luggage department, crying. Slowly, he approached, holding out a chocolate frog on his hand.

"Lily? I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that, it was mean of me. I know that you wouldn't think something like that about me. Please forgive me." She let out a final sob, then she looked up, angrily wiping the tears off her face with her sleeve.

"You know, a few months ago I would have thought something like that, and most probably would have said it, too. But the last few months taught me a lesson. I might have made mistakes in the past, but I'm not stupid, and I realise when I treat someone unfair, sooner or later." He nodded.

"I know, Lily." They sat side by side silently until he spoke up again.

"What do you say we start anew? Try to getalong this time?" He held out a hand towards her, and she hesitantly took it, marvelling at how easily her small hand disappeared in his big one. She smiled and looked up into his brown eyes.

"Okay, let's try that." He shook their hands.

"To a new beginning. Remind me to drink friends with you some time."

"Though I'll still have to hate you for having seen me cry."

They smiled at each other for another second, then he stood up and extended his hand again to help her up, too. When they went back to the compartment, the others were deep in conversation about some transfiguration problem and didn't mention anything for the rest of the train ride.


	6. Not alone after all

A/N: Initially I was going to make you guys wait a little longer, but I received so many great, sweet reviews that I just had to update. This is one of my favourite chapters in the fic, so - enjoy!

Not alone

Lily spent the holidays at home with her sister. At first, it was painful to walk through the almost empty house and think of her father all the time, but after a while, she enjoyed being captured by the childhood memories that seemed to flow round here. The atmosphere was tense though. Petunia barely spoke to her, and Lily started to get bored. Sophie spent the first weeks with relatives in Wales, soLily couldn't evenvisit her best friend. Instead after she'd finished all her essays due for next year, she took long walks around the town. On one of those evening strolls she met a group of boys whom she'd gone to school with before Hogwarts, who stopped to talk to her a bit. Soon the conversation turned to her school, and Lily drew back. The ministry wizard who had come to tell her that she was a witch had brought them a brochure of a school named St. Benedictus' School for the Gifted, a school for overly talented kids, which she should pretend to attend when asked about. Up until now that hadn't caused any problem, since she didn't usually meet a lot of people when at home. Always being a little different, she'd never had any friends. Ironically, the other children used to call her "witch" because of her red hair. If only they knew… but now, standing in front of those boys who were attending the middle school of Stepford, the next town, she felt a bit uneasy. It seemed a bit arrogant telling those boys who were probably going to graduate averagely, get a job in one of the factories in Stepford and settle down here that she was overly gifted. She almost whispered when she answered

"St. Benedictus'. Up north." John, the biggest bully in town, had inquired further.

"So what sort of school is that? What makes it so special that you had to leave Stepford for it?" Oh no, Lily thought, that's it.

"It's for children with above-average intelligence. But if you don't mind, I have to go now." She turned to walk away, but was yanked back by her arm.

"Please don't go. We want to hear a bit more about your school. Is it full of freaks like you?" John took a step closer to her, his voice turning more aggressive. Lily didn't answer.

"What, has our above-average know-it-all witch forgotten how to speak? That's not very intelligent. Or do you think you're above speaking to us because you're so clever? Answer me!" With that, he pushed her down. Oh-oh, big trouble. Lily struggled to stand up again, but just as she was about to do so, John grasped her head and held it down.

"You wouldn't want to leave us now. We enjoy your gifted presence so much. So, what is it that makes you that much more intelligent?" She didn't answer, again, and he pushed her down violently. Her right cheek hit the floor, scraping over the stone painfully. She gasped as he kicked her in the side.

"Not so superior now, are we?" The other boys laughed and formed a tight circle around her, while Lily thought frantically. She could just run home, but even if she got away from them, she wasn't sure if Petunia would help her. She seemed to hate her sister lately, and had more than once made snide remarks herself. Then Lily looked up and saw her sister's boyfriend, Vernon, looming over her, and immediately she realized she would get no help from her sister. She would have to apparate. She hadn't taken the exam yet, but she already knew how to apparate, she'd managed to do it a few times at the training centre. The only question was: Where to? Sophie was on vacation with her family, you couldn't apparate into Hogwarts, and she had no other friends to flee to. Just then, an idea shot through her head: Potter! He'd help her for sure.

She was kicked again, then yanked to her feet, where John held her close to him and whispered in her ear:

"Well, if you are so clever, you sure know what boys like, don't you?" He tried to kiss her, and she kneed him in the groin. Then, before any of the boys could react, she'd grabbed her wand and disapparated, all the time praying that she wouldn't splinch herself up or land somewhere else. She landed in a room that appeared to be a bedroom, sitting on the bed – no, sitting on a person lying on said bed! She jumped up and wanted to start apologizing, but the person – luckily it had been James – cut her off.

"Lily! What are you doing here? And why did you apparate - you don't even have the license yet!" She turned towards him to explain, but was cut off again.

"And what on earth happened to your face?"

"James, would you let me explain already?" He nodded. "Well, I ran into some guys from primary school, who bullied me, and so I apparated out."

"Did they do anything to you?"

"A few kicks, nothing bad."

"They kicked you?"

"Just once or twice, and it doesn't hurt that much. Just – could I stay here for a while?"

"Sure, but why didn't you just apparate home?"

"Well, I don't think my sister would help me. She hasn't been that fond of me lately, and since one of the bullies was her boyfriend, I wasn't so sure whom she would pick." She looked so miserable, standing there with her cheek bleeding, her hair tousled, dirty clothes (which he desperately tried not to notice were muggle shorts and a rather snug top with spaghetti straps), desperately trying to appear calm and collected.

"Are you telling me you're living alone with your sister who hates you?"

"She doesn't hate me…" Tears welled up in her eyes, and he did the only thing possible: He stood up and gathered her up in his arms. She tensed for a moment, then relaxed and started cryinginto his shoulder.

"They said I'm a freak, but it's not my fault I'm a witch. It's not like I chose to! And they said I was arrogant, thinking me superior to them, but this ministry wizard told me I have to say I'm going to this smart-ass school. But I'm not arrogant, am I?"

"No, you're not. Though you can be a little sometimes, but only towards me. And that's fine, most of the time I deserve it. They're just envious because you will do more with your life than they. Don't worry about them." Her sobbing slowly faded away while he caressed her hair and back. When he lightly touched a point on her left hip, she flinched.

"What? Did I hurt you?"

"No. That's just where they hit me."

"Let me have a look at it. It could be serious." Hesitantly, she rolled up her shirt a bit (_Keep calm, James, it's only her stomach!_), revealing a large purple mark.

"Let me see what I can do about that. And about your face, while we're at it." He picked up a book from a book-shelve above the desk. He flipped through it, then quickly did some healing spells to the injured places.

"Any other places where they hit you?"

"You might check my back." She rolled her shirt up again, and James tried not to curse at the sight of the big bruise just above her shorts. After he'd healed everything, there was an awkward pause, before he asked:

"Do you want to take a shower and put on a fresh shirt? You can have one of mine." She nodded, and he gave her one of his shirts and led her to the bathroom. After she'd closed the door, he leaned against the wall and breathed indeeply.

_Keep cool, Potter. Yes, Lily Evans just apparated _on_ you, injured and shocked; and you consoled her and healed her, and she wants to stay here, and her outfit is so revealing that your eyes nearly popped out, but you have to stay calm. You have to tell your parents, you have to talk to her about what to do, you have to arrange things with the ministry since they've certainly already noticed she apparated illegally. And you absolutely mustn't jump on her, even though she's incredibly beautiful and won't leave your mind for a single second. _

He groaned and went down to talk to his parents. They were sitting at the table, waiting for him to come down to dinner, and his mother waved a letter.

"Hello James. Care to explain why there's a letter to Lily Evans sent to James Potter's bedroom, Potter manor?"

"That's actually why I came down here. Lily's a girl from my class, and she fled here because she was attacked by a group of muggle boys and couldn't go home because her sister wouldn't have helped her, so she apparated here and I healed her injuries, but she hasn't taken the apparition test yet, so the ministry warned her off." He said this all without breathing even once, then plopped down on a chair and looked at his mother with pleading eyes.

"Can she stay here? At least for tonight?" Brianna Potter looked at her son for a moment. She'd suspected for a long time now that her little boy (who wasn't so little anymore, even though she hated to admit it to herself) had girls problems, and she had the sneaking suspicion that this damsel in distress was the object of her son's admiration.

"So where's she now?"

"She's taking a shower."

"Was she hurt badly?"

"No, just a few smaller bruises. I can't believe they just attacked her without any reason. Just because she's different. That's ridiculous! I mean, everyone always tells us to be tolerant towards muggles, and then they go and beat up helpless girls!" She hadn't seen her son so angry in a long time, and it made her proud to see him defend the girl he loved.

At that moment, there was a shy knock on the door, and Lily came in. She was still wearing her muggle shorts, but her legs were now covered up with James' t-shirt. She walked straight up to Mrs. Potter.

"Hello Mrs. Potter, I'm Lily Evans, I'm in James' year at Gryffindor." Mrs. Potter stood up and gave her a warm embrace.

"Hello Lily. I already heard what happened to you. I hope you're fine?"

"Yes, James already looked after my injuries. I wanted to thank you for letting me stay here. I really appreciate it."

"That's alright. You might want to pick up a few things from home, if you want to spend the night here. I think now that you've already apparated once, you can do it again. James will accompany you, he's just passed the test."

"Oh, James, I didn't know it was your birthday."

"July 25th."

"Happy Birthday. Sorry I don't have anything." With that, she surprised James (and herself) by hugging him.

"Well, I'll write to the ministry and explain to them why you had to apparate." With that, Mrs. Potter picked up a quill and piece of parchment and began writing. Lily and James nodded to each other shortly, then they apparated.

They appeared right in the middle of the Potters' living room. Unfortunately, Vernon and a few of the boys who'd bullied Lily earlier were sitting there questioning Petunia about her sister.

"Oh shit." Lily exclaimed as the boys started getting up, angry looks on their faces.

"We have to obliviate them. I'll take the three on the left, you'll take the three on the right. On the count of three. One…two…three…" Two flashs of light sped through the room, leaving behind a group of slightly dazzled young men. Lily stepped forward and quickly shoved John towards the door.

"Thanks for your visit, but you have to go now. My sister and I still have to clean up a bit here. It was nice seeing you, though. Bye." With a sigh of relief, she closed the door behind them.

"And that'll be another ministry letter."

"Doesn't mater much anymore. Someone would have had to alter their memories after you disapparated before their very eyes anyway. Now we can at least tell the ministry wizards we already did that for them." He noticed Petunia standing in the doorway, looking both angry and frightened. He put on his most charming smile and walked towards her, his hand outstretched.

"I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself. I'm James Potter, a friend of Lily's from school. I'm so sorry for that little scene we just made, but unfortunately, not all the muggles are as open-minded about wizards as you." Despite the rather sad irony of the sentence, Lily had to smile. James meant to be so polite, and said all the wrong things.

"Petunia, I'm here to pick up a few things. I'll be staying at James' tonight. If you haven't already heard, your friends attacked me on the way home, and I don't really trust you to protect me from them." Petunia looked at her coolly.

"I'd rather you pick up all your stuff and not come back." Lily stared at her sister incredulously.

"I'm sorry. Did you justthrow me out?"

"Yes. I'm fed up. I've had enough of you disappearing all year only to show up again with your little tricks and your magic, causing us trouble. I'm sick of lying to my friends because of you, and most of all, I'm sick of being in danger because of you."

"Being in danger? How does me being a witch endanger you?"

"Don't think I'm stupid. Dad was killed by black-cloaked figures, people said, and no matter what the police tells me, I know he was not stabbed or anything, he was murdered by your magic. I don't know what's going on in weirdo-world, but I know you're the one that's bringing it to me, and I don't want anything to do with it. I'd really appreciate it if you'd just disappear out of my life."

"What!"

"I think you've heard me. I've already lost my parents because of you, I don't want to lose my friends too. I'll go over to Vernon now, and when I come back I hope you'll be gone. About the heritage: I'll pay back your half of the house."

"I don't want half of the house back, I want you to come back to your senses. Do you realise you're abandoning me here? You're my sister! And how was it my fault we lost mum?"

Petunia, already half out the door, turned around once more.

"She died when giving birth to you, Lily. I guess dad never told his precious little girl, did he? Well, now you know. Goodbye. Have a nice life." With that, she walked out of the door.

Lily had turned white as a sheet. She was still wondering whether to break down and cry or vomit all over the living-room carpet when James came up beside her.

"Lily, are you alright?" She quickly shook her head. James was here. She couldn't freak out now, not with him watching. She never let people see her lose control.

"I'm fine. I guess I should start packing." She hurried up to her room and started throwing her clothes and school stuff into her trunk while all she really wanted was to curl up into a tight ball onto her bed and cry herself to sleep. Instead she murmured quietly to herself:

"Keep calm. You mustn't panic now. Even though it might seem like you're all alone at the moment, you're not alone. You've got friends. And the Potters will surely let you stay until Sophie gets back. Then you return to Hogwarts and finish school. And after that, you'll look for a good job, take the money from your half of the house and rent a little flat in Hogsmeade…" She still didn't really manage to calm down, and just as she was about to go mad, James came in with two big boxes.

"You might need them, for your personal stuff, memories and decoration…All the things that don't fit in your trunk anymore."

"Thank you." He just nodded and began packing her children's books into one of the boxes. After little more than an hour, the room was empty. James had even managed to transfigure her furniture into smaller objects which they could place into the boxes, too. After one last glance around the house, one last stroll through the garden, Lily quickly wrote a letter and laid it out on the table for Petunia to see. They were, after all, sisters.

A/N: The song for this chapteris a terribly sad song called "Catch me", and it's from the German movie "Bandits". It pretty much says "Baby, don't forget to catch me", and I think it fits this chapter well because it is James wo catches Lily from her fall (and he will do a lot more catching in the future!). So now I tricked whoever prohibited lyrics in fanfics! Ha!


	7. Life at the Potters'

Life at the Potters'

Upon returning to the Potters' house (once again by apparating; it really didn't matter any more) they found that James' mother had already written to the ministry and explained everything. Lily had got away with a warning. Mrs. Potter had also prepared a guest room for Lily to live in. 

"Mum, could Lily stay a little while longer? Say, until the end of the holidays?" Mrs. Potter raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow.

"What happened?"

"Well, you see, Lily and her sister got into a fight, and her sister kind of kicked her out, and as her parents are dead, she's got nowhere to go now. It would only be for a couple of weeks, and it's not as if we didn't have enough space around here." James blurted out. Mrs Potter's elegant features softened.

"Of course she can stay here. Lily, I'm very sorry you had a fight with your sister. I really hope you two will make up again. Rest assured that you're welcome here anytime."

"Thank you again. I would only be staying here for two weeks, though. I will spend the last two weeks with my friend Sophie Hunter at her house."

"I know the Hunters. A nice family. Now, you and James can bring your luggage up to your room and then return to dinner." With that, she went into the living room, and James started drugging Lily's trunk up the stairs.

"Your mother is a great woman."

"I know. She always puts up with whatever pranks I pull, and keeps most of them from my father. He gets a lot angrier."

"So that's where you got your impulsive side."

"I'm not impulsive."

"Call it passionate, if that suits you better. But you're definitely not known for your cool head."

"I know someone who's got quite a temper herself."

"That's the curse of the redheads." They laughed and trudged up to Lily's room, which was directly across the corridor from James'.

At dinner, Lily got to know Mr Potter, a pleasant man with the same unruly black hair and the same mischievous twinkle in his eyes as his son. Looking at him, she could see how James would look one day. She had been worried that Mr. Potter would pose awkward questions, but apparently, his wife had already told him about the guest. He only struck up light conversation about Hogwarts, and Lily was grateful for his tactfulness. She was in absolutely no state to talk about what had happened. After dinner, she excused herself and retired to her room, finally allowing herself the relief of crying.

James stood in the hallway, pressing his ear to Lily's door. He could hear her sob, and his heart broke with every tear he imagined rolling down her face. He knew it had been a lot for her today, and he had suspected her cool demeanour this evening was only a façade. Now he longed to go in there, hug and console her and make the pain and the hurt go away, but he couldn't. That was the moment when James decided to become a better man – for her.

The next two weeks, Lily was depressed. Every time she looked through one of the boxes, the items in there kept reminding her of her childhood – happier times. She could sit in the Potters' huge garden (which was actually more of a park, really) for hours staring into space, totally lost in memories. But every time it threatened to become too much for her and make her cry, James showed up and tore her out of her thoughts. He spent a lot of time trying to distract her, but he never pushed her to do anything. She even managed to laugh at some of his jokes. In general, Lily was surprised to see a totally new side of James. He was kind, gentle and caring towards her. He asked her about her favourite meals and made the house elves cook one of them every day. He dug up an old gramophone in the attic and made his father buy some records in muggle London after Lily had mentioned that she loved muggle pop music. He interrupted her afternoon crying session at exactly four o'clock every day with some fresh chocolate chip cookies (her favourite kind) and a glass of milk. And one afternoon, he didn't even give her the time to fully lunge into self-pity as he burst into her room shortly after lunch.

"Lily, come on, I want to show you something." She was a little bit resilient to leave the room and abandon the last two boxes of memories, but he just grabbed her hand and pulled her up.

They walked through the part of the garden that she knew, past the Hollywood swing and the little maze of hedges to a slightly wilder part of the garden. When they came to a large old oak tree in the middle of a small meadow of wild flowers, they stopped. He looked up and muttered some words, and a rope ladder appeared down from the branches.

"Follow me!" With that, he took hold of the ladder and disappeared into the tree. Curious, Lily followed him. She arrived at a little platform in the tree crown, complete with a little hut in the middle. James was sitting on a pillow in front of it, patting the pillow beside him.

"Welcome to my sky castle." She had to smile at his tone, at the childish enthusiasm with which he looked around. When he didn't play with his hair or put on his womaniser mask, he was actually quite handsome, she noticed – and had almost missed him talking.

"My dad built that for me when I was four. He told me I'd get it as soon as I'd be able to fly up there, but my mum scolded him and told him she would not let a four year old fly around alone. So we installed the rope ladder. When I was a child, this used to be my shelter. I'd go here when I was particularly angry, or sad or confused or happy, or when I just needed some time alone, or to read. Actually, I spent most of my time here. But two years ago, a nest of hornets settled in here, and we couldn't use it anymore. My parents didn't have time to do anything about it, and so I sort of forgot about it. But just this morning, my mum told me that they had removed it. So, I wanted to show it to you. And, please be aware, not everyone gets to see this. Apart from me and my parents, only Sirius and Remus know of it."

"What about Peter?"

"Oh, he has only been here while we couldn't use the tree house."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the view. Between the thick branches of the old tree they could see endless amounts of the beautiful landscape. The air up here felt cleaner and fresher, and Lily could understand why this tree house had been a shelter for James: It created a feeling of peace and safety.

"You know, when I was seven, I had a big fight with my parents, and I got so angry that I wanted to run away from home. So I decided I would live up here as a hermit. I actually slept here, but then I got scared and returned to my parents." Lily smiled. In her head, she could see little James stomping up the ladder, a determined frown on his child's face, his hair messy as always as he moved out of his parents' house to live in solitary.

From that day on for the next week (the last week Lily was going to spend at the Potters'), two things changed: Lily no longer spent the entire day in her room, and she no longer cried. Somehow she felt like she had spent all her tears, and that now it was time to start over again. Up until now, there had never been a lot of people close to her. There had been her dad, her sister (even though pragmatic Petunia had never understood her weird, dray-dreaming little sister) and later Sophie. But now that Lily had got used to the idea of James Potter, she also started wondering if maybe something like friendship could grow between them. He had helped her a lot, he had forgiven her for the way she had treated him, he was nice to her, and he always managed to cheer her up.

Yes, the new discovery that was James Potter definitely sounded like a good option for the future.

A/N: The song for this chapter is "If you let me love you" a beautiful song by the Smalltown Poets.

As always: Thanks for reviewing! (I'm craving reviews, especially as I'm not sure myself whether I think this is a good story or not. Well, we'll see.)


	8. Sophie's dare

Sophie's dare 

_Cinderella said to Snow White_

"_How does love get so off course?_

_All I wanted was a white knight_

_With a good heart, soft touch, fast horse._

_Ride me off into the sunset,_

_Baby I'm forever yours"_

After another few days, Sophie said Goodbye to the Potters in order to spentd the last weeks of the holidays at Sophie's house. The two girls had a lot of fun. Sophie's family,unlike Lily's, wasone of the old, rich pureblood families. The Hunters lived in a beautiful old house, Victorian style, with at leastsix bathrooms and an entire wing for the guest bedrooms. Lily and Sophie preferred to have a spare bed placed in Sophie's huge bedroom (bedroom as opposed to living room and bathroom, for Sophie had all of those for herself) for Lily. This way they could talk all night long, updating each other on their holidays and making plans for the next school year.

"So, have you figured out your dare for me yet?" Lily asked curiously, instantly hoping that Sophie would tell her now so that she could think of an excuse if it had anything to do with James Potter.

"I told you I already had it figured out at the end of last year."

"And?"

"I'll tell you on the first day of school." Lily sighed. Well, then she would have to find something very difficult. But something that would help Sophie, maybe something to do with Remus… Lily thought about it for a long time until Sophie broke the silence.

"Do you have your list?"

"Yes, even though there's not much on it."

"Well, let me see it."

"Now? In the middle of the night?"

"Please…!"

"No, Sophie, let's do it tomorrow. I couldn't find it now anyway, I haven't even unpacked yet. Do you have yours ready?"

"Actually, I've already started one months ago. There's not much on there, either."

"Still, I'm looking forward to seeing it."

"Tomorrow."

After breakfast the next morning, they got out their lists and went out into the garden to their favourite place: a littlestone benchin the shadow of an old oak tree. Many hearts and initials were carved into the outer layer of the tree's skin, and it was romantic as well as a perfect place to dream about the future.

"Alright now, read out yours." Lily cleared her throat, then began reading.

"Things I've never done (and partially don't intend to do either) or want to do at least once in my life:"

"Oh, that's good, that expands the choice."

"Shsh. I'll read. You can guess in which category they belong" Lily cleared her throat for more dramatic effect.

"Saying yes to a date with James Potter. Being out after curfew. Getting a Valentine from a boy and having sent him one too. Flying on a broom..." Sophie cut her off.

"But you've already done that. We had flying lessons, remember?"

"I know. But I mean really flying and doing tricks and everything, not just hovering five feet in the air and holding onto the broomstick for dear life until I look to the ground and let go."

"And how are you going to do that? You're afraid of heights, as you said, you just have to look down and you fall off your broom like a bag of flour!"

"Well, I didn't say I would have to do it alone. I just have to find someone who can fly and is willing to fly with me."

"That's smart my dearest." Sophie grinned as a devilish plan began to form in her head.

"Okay. Next. Telling Snivellus what I think about him."

"Hey, that's on my list too!"

"Why? He never picks on you."

"Yes, but he picks on you, and you're my friend. That's how simple life is."

"You're right, it is. I don't know what all the fuss is about."

"Me neither." Theyturned back to their lists.

"Okay, the next oneis: Eating and listing every sort of Bertie Bott's."

"What do you mean, list? Write down the colours and what flavour they are? Oh come on, that takes awayall the fun."

"I won't actually use the list, just make it. Well, maybe I'll use it once – then I'll sort out the bad ones and give them to the marauders…Oh, that'll be another thing on my list: play a prank on the marauders."

"I'm in on that!" Sophie shouted, hastily scribbling onto her parchment.

"Well, those were the main points. But I'll be working on it over the school year. Now let's hear yours."

"Okay. First: I've never been asked out on a real date by a boy who really likes me, and want to be kissed on said date. (Or sometime over the year. Anytime.)

Second: I've never been in the Forbidden Forest." Lily squealed.

"But that's dangerous. And – forbidden."

"Oh shut up, goody two shoes. Third: I've never kissed Sirius Black."

"Why should you do that?"

"Well, he hasalready kissed most of Gryffindor and about half of the rest of the school, and I would like to know if the rumours are true."

"What rumours?"

"Come on, Lily, don't you ever listen to the people around you? Rumour has it he's the best kisser that ever wandered the mighty halls of Hogwarts. Elaine Clearwater even said you could get atwist in your knickers only from a naughty look from him!"

"Come on, you don't want to lower your standards to the school Casanova."

"I never said I wanted to. I just said I've never done it. Besides, that's one of the older points. I made it ages ago, before I had my new goal."

"And what is your new goal?"

"Remus." She said matter-of-factly.

"Right, he's in the picture now. Have you had any contact over the summer?"

"Yes, we owled. He wrote me some really nice letters. Apparently, he just stayed at home and relaxed, enjoying the last summer of his childhood, as he put it. Honestly, Lily, he's so sweet. I can't wait to see him again." Lily smiled at her friend. She was happy for her, happy that the other girl had found a boy so perfect for her and was so happily in love she would do anything to get him. She wondered what it was like to feel this strongly about a person. She was sure she would experience it herself some day, and until then, she just occupied herself with other things. Boys her age were too immature, anyway.

"And that directly leads me to the next point on my list: Find out Remus' secret."

"So you still think he's got one."

"Yes, of course. Why else would he be so serious, and so sensitive and shy? And he's always got this haunted, sad look in his eyes. I've watched him, Lily, and I know something is wrong. He's ill very often, and he often looks so tired and weary, and so old, not at all like a seventeen year old."

"Yes, I noticed that, too. What are you going todo about it?"

"Well, first I'll find out what it is,even if I have to spy on him. Then I'll talk to him or try to help him. I want him to be happy, I want to see him laugh freely. He's too young to be so earnest and bitter."

"Bitter?"

"I don't know. He's got this bitter, tragic aura, you know? I feel like I'm in some drama novel."

"And I guess you're the heroine in the flattery dress on the cover and he's the strong man with the frilly shirt kissing you passionately?"

"Yeah, kind of…"

Both girls laughed, careless in their juvenile optimism, still believing that everything would turn out right in the end.

A few days after Lily's arrival, two big owls brought their Hogwarts letters.

"Strange, mine's a lot bigger than usual."

"What could be in there? Maybe a nice head girl badge?" Sophie asked innocently. She was sure her red-haired friend would get the position. She was top of the class in every subject except for flying and potions, and she'd never in her whole six school years broken any rules. The big secret, however, was who would be head boy. Lily carefully broke the seal and pulled out the letter slowly. Her face lit up when the shiny badge fell into her hands.

"You were right! I'm head girl!"

"And what a surprise it was! Now tell me who's head boy, quick! I'm dying with curiosity." Lily unfolded the parchment and began scanning through it. All of a sudden, she choked and stared at the paper in irritation.

"Now that is a surprise!" She handed the letter to Sophie, who quickly scanned over it.

"What? James Potter? The marauder James Potter, who plays a prank every week, who has probably violated every single rule there is in this school?"

"They've got to be joking! He'll ruin the school within a month."

"Come on, he's still got you to watch over him. Besides, as head boy, he won't be able to play pranks anymore."

"Yes, that's the good side. But still…Oh my god, I'll have to live in the Head rooms with him."

"Actually, they do have separate bedrooms…"

"I know. But still, we've got the same common room to study in, and we'll have to work together a lot…"

"It won't be that bad. I still say give him a chance. He might turn out to be a nice boy."

"Are you seeing this with your inner eye?"

"Yes, actually. I had a vision of your marriage. Really nice party, you all dressed in white… And let me tell you, that boy looks gorgeous in a tuxedo…"

Lily nudged her in the ribs.

"Stop being so stupid, people won't believe in your visions anymore if you predict rubbish like that. Alright, I'll give him a chance. But when he doesn't cooperate, that's it."

"Right. You know, now I'm really excited about next year."

Two weeks later they were on their way to Hogwarts again – for the last time. Lily made the prefects' meeting as short as possible, then retired to the head compartment with Sophie. When they came in, the marauders had already taken up most of the place, but hastily emptied two seats for the girls.

"So, head girl, what do youthink aboutyour head boy?" Lily drew a face, but smiled at James at Sirius' question.

"I do believe he has to get a bit more serious, but I think he's got potential." James smiled, relieved to see that she had taken the news well and obviously decided to give him a try to prove himself. He was determined to do just that. He would change her opinion of him, kill her prejudices by the roots. No more flirting, no more pranks, no more arrogance – no more pride. He was willing to shoot everything in the wind for the girl he loved. And that he was sure of. All he could think of all summer long were her sparkling green eyes, her fiery hair and her even fierier temper. He had watched her for years, knew her every move, and all of her little habits, but still he had the feeling he didn't really know her. He wanted to know what she was thinking and believing, what her dreams were. He wanted to know why she was so serious and everything, and so cold towards boys. Sure, she'd gone on a few dates (before the marauders had started meddling in there, that is), but she'd never developed anything further with any of the boys, and she seemed perfectly happy with it.

It seemed as if everyone was watching everyone. James kept looking at Lily, wonderingwhat sort of personshe really was insideand what it was that made her so distant. Remus and Sophie kept sneaking glances at each other, and Sirius seemed to highly enjoy watching them doing so. Lily watched all the inhabitants of the compartment: Peter, sitting at the window looking out, occasionally turning towards the others to laugh at a joke Sirius had made. Sirius with his extremely handsome features, pulling one joke after the other and smiling broadly. Remus, quiet, but obviously relaxed and enjoying himself. Lily noticed he blushed a little when Sophie turned towards him abruptly so that their faces were directly in front of one another. Lily smiled to herself, thinking how cute they would be as a couple. Sometimes she wondered if maybe love wasn'tsuch a badthing. Maybe there were boys who were nice, and reliable and honest. And, more importantly, maybe true love did exist after all. And if it did, she was sure she would experience it someday, too. But up until then, she would live her life as it came and enjoy her time at Hogwarts.

A/N: This time I just had to put a tiny little bit of lyrics in there, I hope forgives me. The song is "This kiss" by Faith Hill. I know Lily and James being head boy and girl is such an old idea, but I couldn't help it.


	9. Confusion and cocoa

_Confusion and cocoa_

After the feast was over, Lily moved into her new room. The head quarters consisted of a large common room with a big table to study on, a fireplace and several deep, comfy armchairs. From this room, two doors led to Lily's and James' room, and a third to the bathroom.Her room contained a large four-poster with light blue hangings, a smaller fireplace and a sideboard with drawers and a large mirror. She started unpacking her trunk, placing her cosmetics onto the sideboard and heralarm clock and the photograph of her fatheron the nightstand.

The door opened and Sophieentered. Of course, Lily had already told her the password.

"Wow, these are your rooms? They're beautiful! Now I really envy you!"

"Well, they are as much your rooms as they are mine. You can spend as much time here as you want. But now, let's move on to the important part: The dares!" They made sure the door was locked, and settled on Lily's bed.

"Alright. Who goes first? Lily, you start."

"Alright. Well, I thought about making your dare something very crazy or embarrassing, but then I settled for something rally useful instead. So my dare is: You have to ask Remus out on a date – I mean, a real date. And kiss him, preferably. We've got to get that romance going, don't you think?" Sophie frowned.

"Actually, that's not as bad as I would've expected. I don't have to humiliate myself, only do something I already wanted to do. And with your dare, I won't be able to pull back. Now we get to my dare: You will have to take flying lessons at least once a week for – let's say – some weeks. Maybe until you can do a Wronski Feint without fainting. I'm kidding about the Wronski feint thing. And you have to take them with James Potter, which of course you'll have to ask him to."

Lily stared at her, absolutely stunned.

"No. You can't be serious. You can't do that to me… "

"Yes, I can. Oh Lily, you're in for it. You're going to overcome your worst fear and your worst flaw."

"Stop talking in riddles. My worst fear is flying, but what is my worst flaw?"

"Your prejudices against James Potter, Lily. Once you've overcome them, you'll be able to find real happiness."

"You know, I really hope this is some sort of vision, because it sounds like crap, and I won't put up with Potter just because you fantasize around." They both laughed and talked until well past curfew, and Sophie had to sneak back into the common room.

"I'll miss you. Maybe you can sleep here from time to time, at least during the holidays. It's strange sleeping alone in a room after six years of dormitory."

"Well if you're lonely, you can always go over to James, you know…"

"Yeah, of course! Now sod off and go to bed, and stop mocking the head girl. Good night, my dearest."

The next morning, Lily would've overslept if it hadn't been for James banging on her door when he came back from breakfast and realized she still wasn't up. She was extremely embarrassed when she ran to the bathroom to get in order. She was in a state James had never seen her in: Hair wild and tousled, eyes small and puffy, still clad in a nightdress and flushed with embarrassment. He smiled broadly. He was really looking forward to seeing the secret non-perfect side of Lily Evans!

Prefects' meeting was a quiet affair this morning before classes. James quickly instructed everyone while Lily kept quiet most of the time. By the end of the morning, rumours about something happening between the Head boy and girl were running high. Meanwhile, Lily was complaining to Sophie.

"It's only been a day and he already embarrassed me!"

"He didn't embarrass you, he saved you from being late and missing breakfast! You should be grateful. Honestly, what did we say about giving James a chance?" Lily looked ashamed.

"Sorry. Okay, from now on, I'll try to be nice to him."

"Good girl. So, already talked to him about the flying lessons?"

"One step at a time. First liking, then flying, alright? There's no time frame to your dare, is there?"

"Let's say the first lesson has to take place before Christmas. And now come on, or we'll be late for lunch."

James had also reported the events of the morning to his friends, and had been highly praised.

"See, it's not that difficult to just be nice and sweet and not permanently embarrass her, is it?"

"It's not difficult, but we don't know if it's effective yet. That still has to be found out. I have to admit though, your way might really be the better one, Moony."

"Now go charm Lily's pants off, big ladies man. You'll crack her!" Sirius cheered him on.

After a long day of lessons – why on earth did the teachers start full throttle on the first day, for heaven's sake? – James returned to the Head common room and lots of homework. He decided to do them right away, for different reasons: First he was sure that, despite all his intelligence, a little learning for the NEWT's couldn't hurt. Second he was hoping that Lily would spend her evening here, too. Maybe they could do their homework together. Offering to help her with homework – even if she was Lily Evans, top student – would impress her (if not done in a superior tone), Moony had told him. So he started scribbling down notes about a transparency draught, used as the magic alternative to muggle x-rays. After about half an hour, Lily finally came in and threw her bag into one of the armchairs, muttering something about "stupid third-years in puberty". When she saw him bent over his potions book, she stopped dead.

"What are you doing?"

"Homework. 3 feet of parchment about the transparency draught, due tomorrow." She slumped down on the chair beside him.

"Oh no! I'd completely forgotten about homework."

"Need some help?" She looked at him incredulously.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah. You look as if you'd break down every moment. So exhausted?"

"More than exhausted! Whoever declared Head Girl a great position was the biggest idiot ever wandering this earth. Honestly, what's so great about chasing after little pranksters and snogging teenagers?"

"Well, once you've got them, you can give'em detention." He smiled mischievously, and she couldn't help but feel a bit better.

"Okay, let's start. What have you found?" The rest of the evening passed in studious peace, until Lily yawned and declared:

"I won't write one more word."

"That's alright, since you've already written 4 feet." James said, smiling down on the long piece of parchment with her neat handwriting on it. Lily studied his face for a moment. He was not strikingly handsome like Sirius, but there was this honest, open boyishness to his features that could do something to a girl, especially in combination with his warm brown eyes, twinkling mischievously behind his glasses. James waved a hand in front of her eyes.

"Lily? Are you alright?" She snapped out of her thoughts and – god help her – blushed.

"I…I'm fine. Just tired I guess. I should probably go to bed. Good night, and thanks for helping me." She stood up, hastily gathered up her things and disappeared into her room. James looked after her with a triumphant smile on his face.

The next morning, he could proudly tell his friends that he was making progress. He burst into the Great Hall, plopped down beside Sirius and blurted out:

"She stared at me. Honestly, she looked at me for like minutes, and she obviously liked what she saw." This declaration was followed by a lot of back-clapping and "Well done, buddy!"s, before the boys stuck their heads together and started planning how to proceed.

Over the next days, James was always polite and charming towards Lily, helping her with her potions homework (the only class she was truly horrible at), knocking on her door to wake her in the mornings. He also carried her books when they walked to class together, even though she didn't want him to, and left her favourite sweets, sugar quills, on the table in the head common room for her. He was utterly gentlemanly and chivalrous towards her, and it frightened the hell out of her. She was used to a James who was always taunting and teasing her, who was arrogant and conceited and didn't take anything serious, and now she had this perfect boy around her all the time. Sometimes she wished he would just go back to his old self again. Last year, she had been angry with him all the time, but at least she had known how to deal with him. Of course he had been exceptionally nice when she had stayed with him during the summer, but she had to many other things on her mind to think about that. Plus, it had been really comforting having him around.

Lily hadn't told Sophie anything of what had happened over those past days. She just didn't want to see the triumphant smirk on the other girl's face when she said "I told you so!"

For a reason she herself didn't know, Lily was in a bad mood the whole day. She actually took five points from two second-years for practicing dance steps in the corridor. Just as she was about to tell off a fifth-year couple that had tried to sneak into an empty classroom, James came up behind her.

"Now, Lily, you wouldn't want to make yourself unpopular in your first weeks as head girl? Leave them be. Don't you remember how you were at this age?" With that, he winked at the couple, then took her arm and led her to their rooms. As soon as he had closed the door behind them, she yanked his arm away and turned to glare at him.

"Care to explain why you're trying to undergo my authority in front of younger pupils? How am I to be respected if the head boy, who's supposed to be on my side and support me, comes and… and… plays me out like this?"

"Lily, you have been taking away points all day for the most ridiculous reasons, and the students are starting to say that you're a terrible head girl."

"Oh really? Why don't you let me decide whether my reasons are ridiculous or not? I was perfectly in control of everything, and then you came and made me look like a complete fool in front of those kids." He had a lot of things he wanted to say to this, but he swallowed them down and just said stiffly:

"I'm sorry if I embarrassed you. I was trying to do you a favour, but in the future, I'll keep out of your head girl duties."

"Thank you." She answered coldly, then swept past him to her room. James just shook his head. He didn't know what had gotten into her lately. If he'd known it was all because she was irritated with him, he would have danced with joy.

The next morning, he knocked on her door as usual. Waking her up had become a habit of them he really liked. But today, he didn't wait for her to get ready but went to breakfast alone, where he sat down on his usual place with a frown.

"What's up prongs? Why is our little Jamesypoo so unhappy?" Sirius mocked him.

"We had a fight again. But seriously, why does she have to go round taking points for nothing and ruining her reputation?" He told them the whole story. As usual, his friends had very different opinions of the matter.

"Well, you've already apologized, so I don't see what else you can do. I would say the ball's in her court." James put a face at Sirius.

"Yeah, except that she doesn't know she's in the game. Remus, any new hints on how to crack a girl?" Remus thought about it in earnest. That was one of his traits: He never thought of a joke purely as a joke.

"Apologize some more. Girls like to be apologized to."

"But I've already done that."

"Well, then apologize for something else, anything. Be creative. And that dos not mean you have to do something to anger her first!" He said warningly. Sirius looked at his quiet friend incredulously.

"How do you know all this stuff?" Remus bent his head, and the others leant in closer to hear his secret force of wisdom.

"Intuition!" He whispered. James smacked him across the head, and Sirius howled loudly.

"Don't start with this "animal instincts" crap again!" They laughed so loud that everyone looked at them curiously. So did Sophie, who was sitting a little way down Gryffindor table. She hadn't thought about Remus a lot, what with the usual stress of the first weeks, but now she was reminded of her goal for this year, and Lily's dare. She stood up and walked towards them.

"Hiya boys. What are you laughing about?", she asked casually when she sat down beside Remus, giving him a particularly bright smile.

"Oh, nothing important. How are you?"

"Well, a little stressed out, what with the new term starting and everything, but fine. What about you?"

"Everything's great. We're enjoying our last year immensely." They chatted on pleasurably for a little while before they went to their first class, history of magic, together. Sophie had been wondering where Lily was, and now that she saw her standing outside the classroom, she left the boys to hurry to her friends' side.

"Hey Lils, what's up? Why weren't you at breakfast?"

"I wasn't hungry." Sophie recognised the lie immediately. Normally, Lily was one of the first to appear at breakfast, and one of the last to leave.

"Honestly, what's wrong? Are you sick or something?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Is it something to do with James?" Sophie had hit a nerve, and Lily had to do something quickly.

"Damn it, can't a girl have her period in peace?" Lily thought that was a rather good excuse. Unfortunately, she had said it a little too loudly. Everyone in the corridor turned around and stared at her.

"Oh bugger!", she sighed and rushed into the classroom that professor Binns had just opened.

To her surprise, Lily's day got better from there on. When she arrived back at the head rooms after her last class, she noticed to her surprise a mug of steaming cocoa and a plate of delicious looking cookies on the table. James entered the room, and she raised a questioning eyebrow at him.

"Well, I have to admit I need your help, and to make you forgive me I brought cocoa. Care to join me?" He pulled out her chair for her, and she couldn't help but smile at him. Maybe James Potter's new personality wasn't all that bad.


	10. More images and no conclusion

More images and no conclusion

_Come on in _

_Did you have a hard time sleeping_

_Cuz the early moon was keeping _

_Me awake, and all I know is_

_I'm just glad to_

_See you again_

While Lily long since felt comfortable in her new room, Sophie still had trouble getting used to the fact that her best friend for six years was no longer sleeping in the bed next to her. Even though there were two other girls, she felt terribly alone. Marie and Petula were nice girls, but most of their friends were in Ravenclaw, and Sophie didn't talk much to them. Lily's absence was especially disturbing when she woke up from a nightmare, which seemed to occur more often these days. Sophie got the feeling these dreams wanted to tell her something, but she could never see anything clearly enough to make out some sense. That changed one clear, cold night in November. Sophie had barely drifted off to sleep when pictures started racing through her mind. They seemed to be in a certain pattern, maybe chronological, but they were just random images flashing through her mind:

_Four friends – animals in a dark forest, three big ones and a small one – two girls, laughing – a dark cloud somewhere far away, coming closer – a graduation party, quickly followed by a wedding – worried faces – a frightened young woman hastily packing her things – four people; a couple and two young men on the edge of a forest, one man tipping a wand first to the couple, then to his own forehead – a young man kneeling on the floor, nervously telling his master some great news – a black-hooded figure breaking into a house, where a young man and woman fought him bravely, trying desperately to protect their baby – a flash of green and a cry of pain, along with the crying of the baby lying on the floor beside its dead mother – a young man on a motorbike – two other men facing each other in a crowded street, and another flash of light – a young man, one of the friends she'd seen earlier, laughing as he was led down a dark, dank corridor into a cell – the second, kneeling before his master again, clutching his bleeding hand in pain, but proud – a funeral, where the fourth and last of the friends stood alone at the grave of friends – around him happy people and a world celebrating their newfound peace…then there seemed to be a large gap in time, and the pictures skipped to two men, one of them in torn, filthy clothes, with long black hair and a beard the other in rather old, worn-out clothes, embracing like brothers – a full moon shining upon a curious group of people – a man soaring away on a hippogriff – two friends, sitting by a fireplace, talking as if they hadn't seen each other for years – and then the next tragedy: a fight, resulting in the death of the dark-haired man…_ All these pictures had been blurry, and she couldn't recognize the people in them. But in the last picture, that changed_. She looked into the same room with the fireplace the two friends had been sitting by earlier. A man was kneeling on the floor in front of the fireplace, staring into the flames. As her view zoomed closer, she could see more details. The man was in his mid to late thirties, though his greying hair and the lines on his face made him look older. He was clutching something that looked like a photograph, and seemed to be on the verge of tears. Then he threw the photograph into the fire, from where the four boys in it waved one last time before they burst into flames. She turned around to the man again, looking in his sad face, his tired grey eyes that looked oddly familiar. A ray of moonlight fell through the open window, bathing the room in its silvery light that competed oddly with the warm light of the fire. Just then, a windblow came in through the window, throwing the curtains aside and almost blowing out the fire. The man stepped into the moonlight by the window with a determined expression on his face, and as the light hit him, a horrible transformation began to take place before her eyes. First he was only twitching, then sinking down on his knees, breathing hard, then he lay on the floor, screaming in agony, while his body changed its form into that of a full-grown – wolf…_

Sophie sat up with a start. Her breathing was fast, and her nightdress plastered to her sweaty skin. She realized she must have fought with her bedsheets the entire time, because they were tangled round her legs. Once her breathing had slowed down a bit, she tried to make sense of the dream. She knew by now it wanted to tell her something, to warn her, but the pictures – except for the one of the man at the end – had been so blurry. She sighed and got up. She wouldn't be able to sleep now anyway, so she might as well go down to the common room and read a bit. She so wished Lily was there right now. She didn't admit it to herself, but Sophie was scared to death.

When she came down, though, she was surprised to see that the fire was already blazing, and someone was curled up on one of the sofas before it. When she stepped on a creaking floorboard, the person turned around.

"Remus! What are you doing down here?"

"I couldn't sleep. The moon's shining in through the window."

"Oh, is it full yet?"

"No, but bright enough to annoy me greatly. What about you?"

"I had a bad dream." He immediately knew there was more to it. She was shocked to the roots, and since the full moon was growing nearer, his sharpened senses immediately caught the air of fear and confusion around her.

"Want to talk about it?" He patted the couch beside him, and she sat down. She prepared herself to tell him about the dream. Maybe it would help to get it out of her system.

She told him about her dream, this confusing dance of pictures in her mind of which she couldn't make out any sense. Somewhere in the middle of her story, she broke down and started to cry. After a moment's hesitation, he scooted closer and gathered her up in his arms. He held her while she dampened his jumper with her tears and gently rubbed her back in slow, circular motions and whispered soothing nonsense. After a while, she calmed down and told him the rest of the story. He had been just as confused as she was, but the moment she had told him about the man in the end, the one who was sitting alone, grieving about the death and betrayal of his friends before transforming into a wolf, he definitely knew it had something to do with himself. He did have grey eyes, and three friends, and he assumed the other three men were James, Sirius and Peter. A feeling of dread came over him, knowing far too well that her dream was a vision, predicting terrible doom in their future lives. He buried his face in her soft, ruffled hair, and she slung her arms around his waist and whispered:

"I'm afraid." Well, so was he, but he couldn't let her see that. He didn't want her to worry even more, and so he breathed in deeply, taking in that wonderful scent of hers, before he straightened his back and pushed her away a little so that she could look into his eyes.

"Listen, Sophie, I don't know what to make of this yet. It has to be a prediction, but since we can't figure out what it means, there's no use worrying about it." She let out a strangled sob, but he cupped her chin in his right hand and forced her to look up.

"Sophie, please, don't let yourself go crazy about this. We can't change the future, even if we know it. We can only prepare to be strong, and hope we'll survive. Until then, we mustn't let it overcome us. No matter what the future brings, we still have to enjoy the present. Remember, I'm always for living in the here and now." She nodded, and he pulled her closer again. They stayed this way for a long time, in each other's arms, while he pondered whether or not to tell her what he knew. He had to tell her that he was a werewolf, anyway, so why not now? But when he looked down at her still trembling figure, he decided not to. She was frightened enough by this vision, if he told her now it was about them, he didn't know what she might do. So he just held her until he heard her breathing get even and the fire burned down, and some time later, he must have fallen asleep, too.

He was woken up by loud and highly disturbing laughter. Slowly, he opened his eyes to see Sirius standing in front of him, laughing like mad.

"Whoohoo, it seems to me the master of seduction has found a new victim." Remus only shot him a look that said "Don't!" and Sirius shut up. He raised an eyebrow at him questioningly, and Remus nodded towards Sophie and mouthed the word "trouble". Sirius nodded. Peter looked at this display of wordless communication between his friends, bewildered. Somehow, he'd never gotten so close to any of them that he could tell them anything without words. He wondered what it was that made both Remus and Sirius, but also James able to do it.

He hadn't even noticed it himself, but over the years, he'd always been a little shut out. He was always there, dragging along with the pranks of the great marauders, but he never really truly was one of them. It annoyed him greatly. Even though he still admired them to no end, sometimes he hated his friends for being who they were, always clever, popular, good-looking, brave… and totally oblivious to other people.

A/N: The lyrics above are taken from Norah Jones' song "Those sweet words".


	11. Flying and Falling

Flying and Falling 

As the year went on, Lily got used to her new duties as head girl, and very slowly also to the new behaviour of the head boy. Still, she couldn't get rid of this slight feeling of uneasiness. It was highly unsettling to see him always nice, polite and correct. But in a way it was also nice. It was nice to have someone care about you all the time. And he did care. He always noticed when she was tired or sick, he brought her cocoa when she'd had a hard day, he listened to her when she complained about something, he helped her with her potions homework… Sometimes they would just sit by the fireplace in the head common room and talk about nothing in particular. It was one of these evenings that Lily decided: It's now or never.

"James, could I ask you for a favour?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"I need to learn how to fly. I mean, not only sit on a broom and hold onto it for dear life, but really do tricks and stuff, and relax and enjoy it." That last bit sounded as if she didn't believe that was possible at all. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Why do you want to learn how to fly? You hate flying." Why does everyone keep repeating that, Lily thought to herself. And should she tell him the truth? She settled for half the truth, combined with a bit of ego-tickling.

"Well, the truth is, I don't really want to, I have to. You see, Sophie and I both had to think of something the other had to do within this year. And Sophie's dare for me was to learn how to fly. And since you're on the Quidditch team and such a good flyer, I thought maybe you could teach me…" She blinked at him through her eyelashes. Her innocent look in combination with the compliment about his flying made him melt like butter in the sun.

"Of course I can teach you. We can start tomorrow. Say, five, the Quidditch pitch?"

"That would be great! Thank you James. I think I'll go to bed now." With that she stood up, gave him a quick peck on the cheek and disappeared in her room.

The next day, Lily was nervous all throughout her morning lessons. When she stepped out on the Quidditch pitch and saw James already up in the air, soaring and diving and looking completely content on the broom, her knees went a little weak. When he saw her, he swooped down at full speed and landed in front of her, narrowly missing hitting the floor. Lily gasped. No way was she going to do this! James laughed at her terrified expression.

"Don't worry. We'll start with the basics. You know, like mounting and starting, things you should have learned in first grade." He winked at her, before he put down his broom and got serious again.

"So, do you remember anything from those lessons?"

"Yes. I have to hold out my arm over the broom and say "Up!", and then I can mount it and kick off. Then I will take off a few meters, and that's usually when I fall down." He bit his lip to keep from laughing.

"Well, be assured that I'll catch you when that happens. Now, first mount the broom, but don't kick off."

"Which broom should I take?"

"The one lying in front of you."

"You mean I should take your broom? Your precious racing broom?"

"Yes. It's better to learn with a decent broom than with those old school brooms. Now, mount." Lily stepped beside the broom which flew up in her hand immediately. She mounted it and looked at him expectantly.

"I think you should get up there now. Don't really fly yet, just hover there for a while. Now, remember the important things: Hold to the broomstick tightly, and don't look down, okay?" She nodded and kicked off softly. She shot up a few meters and didn't look down, then she stopped and hovered in the air.

"Great. Are you getting used to it yet?" Lily was still gripping the broomstick tightly, holding on for dear life. It vibrated under her hands as though angry at being treated like this. It was obvious what James had meant when he said it was better to learn with a decent broom. She could feel the energy flowing through the broom, as if it was yearning to shoot through the sky. At the moment, though, she was completely happy with just hovering there. She felt herself relax a bit, able to enjoy the fresh wind playing with her hair and the light feeling in her stomach.

"So far, you're doing great. Now, fly straight forward for a bit, then turn around and fly back." She did as she was told, but when he commanded her to stop and turn around again, she hesitated. It sure was dangerous to do a 180° turn in midair, wasn't it? She looked down at James, trying to tell him what was troubling her – and immediately realised it was a mistake. The earth was further away than she remembered, and it seemed to tremble and shake before her eyes. To shut out the trembling, she did what she usually did in such a situation: She closed her eyes and let go of what she was holding. She could feel herself falling, and it was such a pleasantly light feeling that she almost regretted it when she landed in James' arms with a small thud.

"Why did you let go of the broom? You were doing just great."

"Yeah well, I did the two things you told me not to do: Looking down and letting go of the handle. It's just that every time I look down, the ground begins to swim in front of my eyes, and then I sort of panic when I realize that I'm just sitting there in midair with nothing but a twig to keep me from falling, all alone…"

"Okay, I think we have to do this some other way." He thought intensely for a short while before mounting his broom (which had fallen to the floor after Lily had let go of it) and motioning her to sit in front of him.

"Well, if you're afraid when you're alone, I'm going to fly with you." He kicked off, and again, they were hovering in the air.

"Now, first of all, I want you to relax. You know, as long as you've got a hold on the handle, you can't just fall down, for brooms usually have balancing spells on them." This really helped her to relax, along with the fact that she was no longer alone and surrounded by air, but could feel the warmth of his body behind her and knew she'd be resting against his chest if she leaned back just a little bit. That thought surprisingly enough made her stomach give a funny little lurch, but she tried to convince herself that it had to do with the flying.

"Now, try to look down without letting go of the handle, and if you should do, I'm right behind you, holding you. With that, he put one arm around her waist while the other remained its firm grip on the broom. As usual, the ground began to swim before her eyes when she looked down, but surprisingly enough, when James' hand on her waist gave her a little squeeze, the swirling stopped.

"It stopped! I can see the ground now, steady as ever!"

"That's great! D'you think you might try it on your own?"

"I could give it a try. Just put me back down carefully." She held her eyes closed shut when he steered them back down and stepped off the broom, before he gave her arm another reassuring squeeze and she kicked off. She tried to remember everything he'd told her, tried to relax and relive the feel of his hand on her waist and his body behind her so as to not feel alone, before she risked a glimpse down. First, it all went great. The ground beneath her stayed stil, the broom felt steady, and James gave her a thumbs-up down there. Then the slight autumn wind made the grass move, and everything became blurry again. She struggled against the feeling of panic for a moment, then gave into it and let go. Again, she was caught by James. After she'd opened her eyes again, she saw him grin down on her, still in his arms.

"You know, I really thought I could make it this time. I was trying so hard, but then the grass shifted, and everything got all blurry again." He gently set her on her feet.

"Well, since you don't know how to land yet, that's the only way for you to come down anyway." She punched him in the side.

"You never know, maybe I would have made it down on my own."

"You did make it down on your own!"

"On the broom!"

"I thinks that's enough for today. My arms are starting to tire." She punched him again.

"I'm not that heavy."

"No, but you add a bit of panache when you fall down from big heights." He smiled as he set her down and picked up his broom.

"Let's get back to the castle, it's getting dark. I think next time, we'll fly together again. You have to get used to the feeling."

She nodded, and together they walked up to the castle's black silhouette against the darkening sky. On the other side of the lake, the sun had already set, leaving only a few red and orange streaks above the surface of the water. She sighed, thinking how this had been a rather relaxing end to one of her usual stressful days. Wow, when had she started thinking of flying as relaxing? Must have had something to do with James' presence, which never failed to make her feel safe. Lily quickly shook her head. _Thou shall not think such things about James Potter._

Still, she couldn't help but look forward to their next flying session.

But first, she had to tell Sophie she had started working on her dare.

"And you really let him sit on the broom with you?"

"What should I do? It really was the best way. Besides, he's not all that bad…"

"What is happening to this world? Lily Evans speaking of James Potter as "not that bad". That's just…hilarious!"

"Oh come on. It's not as if I'd said he was cute or something."

"Would you? Say he's cute, that is."

"Well, he certainly is not unattractive. And those eyes…" Lily said reverently. Then she looked up at Sophie with wide eyes.

"Forget that I've said that. Of course he's not attractive. Not at all"

"Yeah sure. Lily is in love with James, in love with James…" she began in a singsong voice. Lily punched her, but her friend didn't stop, so she grabbed one of her pillows and yanked it over the other girl's head. Of course, Sophie hit back. All of a sudden, the door opened and James' head popped in.

"Everything alright here, you two?" Lily froze in midair and turned scarlet. Oh god, James of all persons had to catch her doing such a childish thing as a pillow fight. But Sophie beamed at James.

"Oh, we're just having a little fun. Wanna join us?"

"No!" Sophie and James looked at Lily as if she'd gone mad.

"I mean… Sophie was just about to go, and I still have homework to do…" she stuttered, very unconvincingly. Sophie looked a little hurt, but stood up and left. James still stood in the doorframe.

"So, what d'you have to do? Need some help?" Lily frantically searched her brain for some homework, and found she really still had a potions assignment to do.

"Potions. Yes, I could use some help." She quickly picked up her book and opened it, then summoned some parchment from the table and took the quill out of her hair, which she had placed there when she couldn't find a hairclip this morning. James stood transfixed, staring at the long waves of that glorious auburn hair…

"James? You okay? You don't have to help me, I could try on my own." He plopped down on the bed beside her, trying very hard not to think: _I'm sitting on her bed with her, I'm so close to her… I could kiss her now…_ He failed. But he was not the only one with that problem at the moment. Lily was reading the same page over and over, not able to find out what it was about. When she turned around to ask him, she realized all of a sudden how close he was. She noticed a faint smell of chocolate, and leather, probably from his quidditch gear, and his eyes, his warm hazel eyes, were gazing at her intently…

All of a sudden, he broke the eye contact and bent down to her book.

"Now, let's see. Hand me the questions, would you?" When she passed him the parchment with the questions for the assignment, their hands brushed, and again, the tension rose. James was so nervous that he couldn't think straight. Still, he tried to concentrate on the text in her book. And, miraculously, somewhere between "2 rat eyes" and "gillyweed extract", the tension vanished, and studious peace fell over the room.

Some time later, James got up. Since they were right in the middle of homework, he figured he might as well do his other assignments now, too. Then he noticed Lily had fallen asleep over her potions book. Her head had fallen back, her lips were slightly parted, and her hair tumbled over her neck and shoulders. The red curls on the creamy white skin looked incredibly tempting. Quietly he gathered up the books and parchment, took off her shoes and covered her with a blanket. He kissed her ever-so-softly on the forehead before he went out and carefully closed the door behind him.

He didn't tell the others about that. It was so special, and the most intimate he'd ever been with Lily. He did do a little victory dance back in his room.

He wasn't the only one who was suddenly very quiet. Lily and Sophie sat in Lily's room the next day, after Lily had apologised for kicking her friend out the day before.

"So, what happened after I'd left? Did he help you with your homework?"

"Yes. We finished it quite quickly, and then he went back to his room. Nothing happened, okay?" Lily knew her friend was searching for any signs of affection on her side, so she made sure she couldn't spill anything about tension or warm brown eyes or chocolate smell.

"How about you? Making any progress with Remus?" Sophie sighed.

"Well, we're talking a lot, almost daily, we walk to classes together, we do our homework together in the common room, we recommend each other books and we laugh at the same jokes. And I'm pretty sure there's something… something in the way he looks at me that makes me hope that he's thinking about me, beyond school work. But he just doesn't make a damn move. Nothing! Every time our conversations get flirtatious, he stops and pretends he still has to do something. It's as if he was afraid to let me get too close to him. It's ridiculous, really, I feel like chasing him around. I don't want to force myself onto him, either, so I back off most of the time." Lily hugged her friend.

"Poor thing. But I'm sure he'll come around eventually."

Sophie was still thinking about that when she went back to her room. She was pretty sure herself that Remus would come around eventually. Unfortunately, patience was not one of her strengths.

A/N: As some of you have pointed out, HBP shows Lily as being good at potions, so that makes part of my story wrong. But I already started it long before HBP, so I'm just going to leave it like this and deal with the fact that it doesn't fully go with the canon of the books. I hope you can forgive me for that and still like the story.

The song for this chapter was "You set me free" by Michelle Branch.


	12. Tricky situations

As November went on, both Lily and Sophie found themselves in emotionally tricky situations. Lily still took flying lessons with James twice a week, and to her own surprise, she caught on to flying very quickly. The only thing still standing between her and a position on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, according to James, was her fear of heights. Lily had found herself thinking that maybe he was funny after all when he said that. And then, there was still this unexplainable feeling of safety when she was close to him, accompanied by a flutter in her stomach that she didn't like at all.

Not only that, but she started to realise that he was indeed very attractive. Lily found herself staring at him more and more often – during lessons, meals, prefects meetings, or when they were working together on their homework. She was beginning to see what all the other girls saw in him. What was worse was that she was also beginning to see all the other girls looking at him. None of them ever made a move or tried flirting with him – they had given up on that long ago, when it was obvious that the only girl who had a chance with the Quidditch star was the very undeserving Lily Evans. But it still bothered Lily how the others were staring and whispering when he walked by, how they talked about him when they thought she didn't hear them, and how they swooned when he smiled at one of them. Sometimes, it even bothered Lily when he smiled at other girls, even though she didn't admit it to herself. But when he smiled at her, or caught her when she fell off her broom for the umpteenth time, all her anger and irritation disappeared. And without consciously noticing it, Lily very, very slowly fell in love with the boy she swore she would never date ever since he asked her out the first time.

Sophie, meanwhile, was trying very hard to restrain herself from strangling Remus. By now, she had several indications that he had feelings for her. For once, everyone in Gryffindor was talking about it, and as much as Sophie disliked gossip (especially about herself) she knew that were there was smoke, there had to be a fire. She also caught these not-so-subtle little hints Sirius was giving his friend all day long, the nudges in her direction and the knowing smile when they were talking. She knew a person's friends could say a lot about said person. She'd also caught him watching her during classes or meals when he thought she wasn't noticing. But in spite of all this evidence, he still kept treating her nice, sweetly - and strictly platonic. She could just go up a wall. And she knew, if something didn't happen soon, she would. So she decided to stop waiting for him to make the first step and instead spice it up a little. Like every other teenage boy, he had to be attentive to female charms, right?

So the "operation make Remus Lupin's eyes pop out" began.

At first, Lily hadn't wanted to go to Hogsmeade, using her Head Girl duties as an excuse. James quickly spoiled that plan by assuring her that Hogwarts could go one day without her and that he would do everything that might be necessary. And once Sophie had dragged her into "Etoile pour la sorceresse", the charm of shopping had overtaken her.

Sunset saw two very pleased girls enter the castle, burdened with packages but smiling all over their flushed faces.

The next few weeks saw Sophie Hunter experiment with her looks: She had Lily try out several new hair-charms on her, tried a new make-up each day and was seen wearing the wildest combinations of clothes.

But after three weeks, Sophie had found out that the best style for her was probably the old combination of lipgloss, muggle mascara and a glamour charm on her dark hair. She also decided that neither punk nor Barbie girl were suitable styles for her, and settled back to her jeans and sweater look after classes. The only change she actually pulled off was to find out the ideal skirt length to make every boy stare at her legs but still stay in line with the school regulations.

Sophie was pleased to notice that none of her experiments had slipped Remus' notice and that he too stared at her legs. What pleased her even more was when he simply stared into her eyes. That was the moment she realized that she probably was in love.

A/N: I know this is a really short chapter, but it's really just sort of a bridge to show how the characters are changing. I'm not sure myself what I think of Sophie changing her looks, I mean, hey, Remus loved her already anyway! But I'll just post this so that I can move on to the next chapter, which is packed with action!

Thank you all for reviewing!


	13. In the cold, dark night

_Send someone to love me_

_I need to rest in arms_

_That keep me safe from harm_

_In pouring rain_

_Give me endless summer,_

_Lord I feel the cold,_

_I feel I'm getting old_

_Before my time_

_As my soul heals the shame_

_I will grow through this pain_

_Lord I'm doing all I can_

_To be a better man_

_Rest assured my angels_

_Will catch my tears_

_Walk me out of here_

_I'm in pain_

He was almost done with the transformation, at the point where his body was that of a fully grown, large wolf, but there were still some coherent thoughts flitting around in his head instead of just instincts, smells and feelings. Right then, he noticed something: A door creaking and footsteps echoing through the long stone corridor, and the smell of something – someone coming closer…

"Oh no, this is bad… whoever this is, it's not padfoot, prongs or wormtail, which means it's probably a student, which means him and I will soon be in big trouble…" that was the last coherent thought his mind formed before one more painful jerk shot up his spine and a single emotion crept into his mind:

"a person…human…someone to chase, hunt down … kill… an intruder …"

By the time Severus Snape had climbed out of the corridor and arrived in an empty house, he had a very bad feeling. He looked around the house: Even though it didn't seem too old, everything in there was battered and torn, the stairs were broken in some places, and every once smooth surface was badly scratched. There were dark stains on the carpets, which he recognized as blood. And then he heard it: A low growl, slowly coming closer and thus getting louder. The first board of the stairs creaked, and his eyes widened in terror at the sight of the creature that was slowly making its way down the stairs -towards him.

For the next few seconds (that felt like hours to Severus) time seemed to stand still. Severus watched the wolf coming closer with quiet, graceful movements, its growl a steady background in his ears as he stood transfixed at the bottom of the stairs.The beast didn't actually look that terrible, except it was much bigger and stronger than a normal wolf would be, and in his eyes there was a maniacal red glow. He noticed the animal (was it an animal?) tightening the muscles in its legs, and he knew it was about to jump…

The door to the basement behind him flew open, and Severus was yanked to the floor just as the beast kicked off the stairs. He heard its angry bark when it realized it had missed its victim, and even though he was no longer alone, there was just no way he would come out here alive.

He was probably in shock, his knees trembling, while James Potter tried to shake him out of his trance and drag him to the door. The wolf had stopped moving for a second, confused. He had no idea where this second human had come from, he'd been so fixated on this one. And he wasn't entirely sure whether he should attack this second human. There was something about his scent that was vaguely familiar. He was so busy trying to figure out what to do that he didn't notice the first person disappearing out through the door, back to the corridor where he could never get, no matter how many times he threw himself against the door, and he threw himself onto the second human that was just about to leave. Then something puzzling happened again: The human transformed into a stag before his very eyes, the scent becoming earthly and animalistic. Now that he was confused and angry, he didn't know what to do. So in spite of the strange familiarity of the stag's scent, he decided to attack.

James sunk down on the other side of the door, panting heavily. He'd fought with the wolf, who had been so confused that he hadn't even recognized the stag that normally went out into the forest with him, until he managed to knock it unconscious by a kick to the head. He was wondering where Snape was. Probably already off to the castle to report them all to the headmaster. At least he hadn't seen him in his animagus form, so at least one of their big secrets would stay covered for tonight. But once Snivellus would start talking, Remus would sure as hell be kicked out of the school, and Sirius probably too. He stood up and kicked the wall in blind fury. Why did everything have to be so unfair? Why did Remus, really the kindest, smartest person he knew, have to have this little flaw? Why did Sirius still have to be so careless as to gamble with other people's lives just because he was bored? Why couldn't Snivellus keep his long nose out of their business for once? He kicked the wall again, this time with his other leg, and nearly fell to the floor at the pain that instilled. Looking down, he noticed a long, bloody gash running down the side of his upper thigh. Sighing, he started to limp back down the corridor.

Lily woke up from the sound of voices shouting in the head common room. What was going on here? She stepped out of her room only to see James holding Sirius at the clasp of his robe, shaking him vigorously. While he'd been screaming just seconds ago, now his voice was barely more than a whisper, but dangerous nonetheless.

"This time you've gone one step too far, Sirius. I hope someday you learn that people's lives aren't something you play with when you're bored. Now go. I don't want to see you again until you've apologized to Remus." Sirius looked at his best friend, whose warm hazel eyes were now hard and cold, opened his mouth as if wanting to say something, then he dropped his head and walked out. James fell down onto the soft chaiselongue, his breath coming out in a painful hiss. That made Lily notice he was injured, and he noticed her standing there. She quickly went over and sat down beside him to inspect his leg.

"What happened? Did Sirius do this?" She asked, horror-struck. He shook his head.

"No. It was … someone else." She expected him to explain everything, but when he didn't, she looked up angrily.

"Are you going to tell me the whole story?"

"I can't." The expression on his face was so pained it almost broke her heart. Pain, confusion, anger and betrayal mingled in his boyish face, making him look lost and forlorn.

She did the only thing she could think of: She pulled him closer and took him in her arms, and he let his head fall down on her shoulder, buried in her red mane.

He was shaking and breathing heavily, and she rocked him softly in her arms until he calmed down. When the shock had worn down, he was able to realize what was happening again, and was surprised to find himself in Lily's arms. Her hair didn't smell like lavender or vanilla or some other girlish scent as he'd always imagined, but rather like clean clothes and a little bit of lemons. Which fitted her quite nicely, actually. With her soft frame holding him up and her hands slowly rubbing his back, he managed to calm down slowly, his anger and pain dissipating. Of course tomorrow there'd be hell to pay, but for tonight he'd done all he could.

When James thought he could relax now, he was utterly wrong. He had barely had time to really enjoy being so close to Lily when the door opened and Professor McGonagall stepped in.

"Mister Potter? The headmaster wishes to see you."

The three boys standing in front of Albus Dumbledore's desk looked pale and frightened as they watched the older man pace up and down the room before them.

"Let me sum up this night's events. You, Mister Black and Mister Potter, told Mister Snape here how he could get into the shrieking shack, but you didn't tell him what awaited him there. Is that right?" Sirius lifted his head.

"No, Sir. James didn't know that I told Sniv… Severus of the shrieking shack. It was solely my doing."

"May I ask why you did it?"

"I don't know. I guess I meant it as a joke." He lowered his head again, ashamed as he became aware of his own stupidity.

"Mr. Snape, what happened then?"

"I went in there and the monster attacked me. Potter came and got me out of there."

"Is that right, Mister Potter?"

"Yes."

"How did you know where Mister Snape was?"

"Sirius told me."

"So you went after him into the shrieking shack. How did you manage to fight the werewolf off?" There was the tricky one, the question James had feared. But he'd already planned out an answer that didn't force him to reveal his animagus ability.

"I distracted it and placed a kick to his head that made it dizzy for a moment. Then I ran for it."

The headmaster nodded, slowly.

"Mister Potter, you may go now. I must advise you to keep silent about this affair. Let Madam Pomfrey have a look at your leg, by the way."

James nodded, but headed back to his rooms after he'd left the headmaster's office. He was in no mood to be scolded by the energetic nurse.

To his surprise, Lily was still up when he got back to the head common room, and rushed towards him. He held up a hand.

"Really, Lily, I can't tell you. That's just not my decision, okay?"

"Sure. But I still think you should sit down and let me have a look at that leg." He let her guide him to the chaiselongue and laid down while she started ripping open the (already half-torn) leg of his trousers and placing healing charms on the wound. He relaxed when she put some soothing and numbing charms on his leg to ease the pain, and started to enjoy being cared for. God knew he deserved it after a night like this!

A/N: The song belongs to Robbie Williams.


	14. Healing

_If I were God I would see  
all the things I never see  
I would always be with you  
and make all your dreams come true  
I would fill your days with laughter  
I would live a million years  
We'd be happy ever after  
They would never see our tears  
Guess how wonderful it would be  
if God was me  
_

The next afternoon, a Sunday, Lily and Sophie finally had time to relax and catch up on each other's lives a bit. They were just setting up the board for a game of chess when the portrait hole flew open and a livid Remus walked in, followed by a rather frightened James.

"Alright. Sirius, you bastard, come outhere immediately." Taking two steps at a time, he ran up the stairs to the boys' dormitories. Sophie and Lily looked after him, mouths agape. Not a minute later, Sirius stumbled down the staircases backwards, trying to fence off his normally calm friend who was now hot on his heels.

"Calm down, Moony, it's not as if anything actually happened." Remus landed a blow in his face that made him tumble down the staircase and onto his back.

"Boy oh boy, who would've thought Remus could be so violent." Lily uttered.

"And so sexy." Sophie added. Lily cast her friend a questioning glance, but the other girl's attention was already back on the two boys. Remus had managed to land another blow before Sirius stumbled back on his feet.

"Whoa, Moony, come off it already! I said I'm sorry. I didn't think it would be so dangerous."

Remus sent him a cold look, accompanied by an ugly sneer.

"Well, next time you want to kill someone, make sure you do it yourself, not let your friend do it." It was dead silent until Remus had left the room. Then, all students started to talk at once. Sophie and Lily turned to question James, while Sirius held his bloody nose.

"Lily, again, can't tell you. Sophie, maybe you should go after him." Sophie wanted to say something, but then she just nodded and left to find Remus.

She found him out by the lake, looking over the lake's surface from a rock. She was surprised how he'd come here so fast. She approached him slowly, carefully, seeing how angry he still was in the vicious way he threw little stones into the water.

"Remus? Would you tell me about it?" He slowly shook his head, not turning around.

"No. You wouldn't want to know it."

"Yes I do."

"No, you don't, believe me. Just go away." She stomped her foot angrily.

"No I won't go away. I will sit here with you and wait all day until you tell me. And don't even think about walking away, or I'll push you into the lake." With that, she sat down at the edge of the rock, still looking at his back. After a few seconds (that seemed like hours to Sophie) she broke the silence.

"Please, tell me Remus. I want to be your friend, and friends tell each other things like that." He snorted.

"Yeah, and look where it's brought me." She hesitated for a moment. Surely he was referring to whatever Sirius had done. They went silent again, until Sophie had the feeling she was really absolutely at the end of her patience.

"Oh come on! It can't be that bad!" For a second, nothing happened. Then he whirled around, got to his feet and stormed down towards her, grabbing her roughly by the arms and shaking her.

"I almost killed someone, for heavens' sake! I am this close to being a murderer!" She looked up at him with wide eyes, suddenly frightened by the angry gleam in his eyes and the way he gripped her arms with surprising strength for a boy his build.

"Remus, you're frightening me. Please let go." He looked at her, and she could see the anger creeping out of his eyes until they were their normal soft grey again. He sat down heavily, suddenly feeling drained, and sighed.

"If I tell you what this is all about, I have to tell you another thing no one except for my family, Dumbledore and my closest friends know. And believe me, once I've told you, you'll reconsider wanting to be my friend." She didn't answer to that, finding it impossible to get through his thick skull in order to tell him that, no matter what his terrible secret was, she wouldn't abandon him. At the moment, she was content with having his trust.

"Well, what you have to know is that I'm …. I'm … a werewolf. I received the bite when I was eight, and ever since then I turn into a monster once a month." She gasped, but showed no sign of her surprise apart from that, so he went on.

"My parents were desperate when it happened. All of a sudden, it seemed I had no future at all. But Dumbledore, great man that he is, decided to take the risk and let me come to Hogwarts. The shrieking shack was built, and rumour was spread it was haunted, so no one would come close to it. No one ever dared, for once in a month, it seemed as if it really were. Of course, the terrifying noises came from me, for I was brought to the shrieking shack for my transformations. Even though everything went right, I was still careful not to let anyone close for fear of losing them. But the other Gryffindor boys, namely James, Sirius and Peter, didn't give up on me until we finally became friends. And what a great time it was. But of course, it didn't take long for them to figure out the regular patterns of my illnesses or visits at home, and soon they knew my secret. And they decided to help me. So they trained to become animagi, and at the beginning of our fifth year, they succeeded. Now we could go out at night when I was a werewolf, and explore the forest, for if we should ever come across someone I might hurt, the others were strong enough to prevent that. You see, James is a stag, and Sirius a rather big dog, and together they're strong enough to keep me at bay, whereas Peter as a rat is needed when it comes to getting into the whomping willow, the entrance to a tunnel leading up to the shrieking shack. Plus, I'm calmer when they're with me." He paused for a moment, smiling as he remembered their adventures, before he returned to the previous night and the smile disappeared.

"Last night, Sirius thought it a fun joke to tell Snivellus how to get into the shrieking shack. Of course he didn't tell him what he would find there, so dear Snivellus was rather surprised to be faced with a full-grown werewolf. If James hadn't come in and knocked me out at the last moment, I would have killed someone. And you know what: I wouldn't even remember it. I don't remember anything from last night, all of this is what James and Dumbledore told me. So, I'm worse than both a murderer and a wild beast. I could kill someone and not even remember it. I'm quitting Hogwarts. Or I'll do something so bad that Dumbledore has to throw me out. Try to kill someone for example. Oh no, right, already done that, sorry." He let out a bitter laugh, before he rambled on.

"I should've never even talked to them. Then they wouldn't know about me, they wouldn't have become Animagi, and all of that wouldn't have happened. This whole animagus thing was a stupid idea anyway. I could kill them, too, and easily. So far, nothing has ever happened. But what if one more thing goes wrong, and I end up killing my friends? No, I will say goodbye to them, pack my trunk and then tell Dumbledore that I'm heading off. I'm just too dangerous for the other students."

"That's rubbish! You're not dangerous for the other students, just for stupid, bored, too curious for their own good people like Sirius and Snape! You won't be dangerous for me or Lily or anyone else as long as you keep going to the shrieking shack once a month. You are not the one responsible for this. Sirius is, being as stupid and mindless as he was, and Snape, with his constant sneaking and his inability to keep his long nose out of other people's business." He looked at her, befuddled.

"You really think it's not my fault? That I'm not somehow egoistic for wanting to stay here at Hogwarts?"

"No you're not. You would be egoistic if you went away now and left the people who care about you here. Like me, for example." He turned around and looked at her, surprised.

"You care about me? Even after I told you what monster I am?"

"Of course I care about you. And you're not a monster. That monster is someone else, it's the trace of the werewolf who bit you, not a piece of your personality."

"But if that's not what I am, who am I then?" All the pain of a seventeen-year-old searching for himself was engraved in the look he gave her, and she placed a hand to his cheek, tenderly stroking along a fresh scratch.

"You are the sweetest, most intelligent boy I've ever met. You're a real gentleman. You're the one people turn to when they've got a problem, the one they respect and the one who's their voice of reason. You're never prejudiced against anyone, except maybe Snape, and you would do everything for your friends, even die for them. That's a lot, Remus, and attributes that can easily compete with being a werewolf." He looked at her disbelievingly, then a small, grateful smile crept onto his lips. She scrambled closer to him on the edge of the rock and took his hand.

"You know, there's another reason why you can't quit." He looked at her, his eyes wide, slowly clearing from the anger, hurt and confusion, and calming down like the surface of the lake after a storm.

"And what would that be?"

She leaned in closer.

"That I can't stop thinking about you." With that, she closed the distance, and kissed him.

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated for so long, I hope you're still with me. The song is from the movie "Bandits",so it probably belongs to Jasmin Tabatabai.


	15. Looks like someone changed his mind

**Looks like someone changed his mind**

_Now, don't just walk away_

_Pretending everything's okay_

_And you don't care about me_

_I know it's just no use_

_When all your lies become your truths_

Unfortunately, as Sophie had to learn the next day, one kiss did not a relationship make. Of course she hadn't expected that Remus would just immediately assume they were a couple and start calling her honey or pumpkin pie or some other mushy pet name. Neither had she expected him to formally ask her out and make it official. But what she absolutely hadn't expected him to do was completely ignore, even avoid her. They had stayed at the lake for a little while longer, until she had started being cold and he had asked her to go ahead back inside, saying he still needed a little more time to think. When she didn't see him anymore for the rest of the day, she figured he wanted to patch things up with Sirius, or talk to Dumbledore about the Snivellus situation. She understood that. She was still trying to be understanding the next morning, when he only gruffly mumbled "Good morning" at breakfast, never addressed her throughout the first two hours of Charms, where they sat next to each other, and barely managed to answer when she said something.

Her understanding was growing thin when the situation remained the same at lunch and all throughout afternoon classes. And she was finally at the end of her patience when she entered the common room from her dorm and saw him trying to slip through the portrait hole before she could make her way over to him. Ha! He had another think coming!

Resolutely, Sophie dashed through the common room, seeing him at the end of the corridor and calling out:

"Remus Lupin! You stop and talk to me this instant, or I will get really angry!" At first, she thought he would just walk on and force her to stun him. Then he stopped and hesitantly turned around, allowing her to catch up with him. Unfortunately, by the time she had reached him and looked up into these beautiful grey eyes, all her angry resolutions about confronting him had dissipated, leaving her feeling very much like a blushing idiot.

He looked at her questioningly, asking for her to say something. So she did.

"So, how was your day?" His eyebrows shot up on his forehead.

"Fine, I guess. How was yours?"

"Charms was a bit boring, and I ruined a sleeping draught in potions, but..." He cut her off.

"Sophie, what did you want to talk to me about?" She could tell he was trying very hard to look this indifferent and distinct, yet it just made her temper flare again.

"Oh, you know very well what I want to talk about! How about what happened yesterday?"

"Yes, thanks for helping me clear my head there, and for listening to me. I really appreciate your friendship." Sophie could only gape at him open-mouthed. Friendship? _What about the kiss, you idiot,_ she wanted to scream. Instead, she slowly counted to ten before continuing.

"Actually, I meant the other thing that happened – the kiss?" Sophie was balling her fists so hard she could feel her nails digging into her hand, waiting for his answer. _Please, Remus, please say that the kiss wasn't just friendship. Please, swear that you love me and want to grow old with me. Or at least, say something nice._

"Yes, sure, thank you for that too. I want you to know that I don't need your pity though. Alright?"

Pity. The worde felt like a slap in the face. That's what he thought the kiss had been? Pity? Sophie could've screamed if she wasn't too stunned to do anything.

The two adolescents stared at each other for a few seconds that seemed like ages to them. Then Remus turned away sharply and made his way down the corridor. Sophie looked after him sadly, water filling her eyes.

"You are much more screwed up than I thought you were, Remus." With that, she climbed back in through the portrait hole. She had absolutely no idea what to do now.

Fortunately, someone else had watched the entire exchange, carefully hidden from the sight of the two fighting friends.

And as Sirius Black threw off his best friend's invisibility cloak, an idea was already forming in his head.

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated for so long. Now I have a creatie phase again, so you should be expecting more updates over the next few weeks. The song is Michelle Branch's "Are you happy now?"


	16. Talking in the dark

**Talking in the dark**

_Don't stray, don't ever go away  
I should be much too smart for this  
You know it gets the better of me  
Sometimes, when you and I collide  
I fall into an ocean of you, pull me out in time  
Don't let me drown, let me down  
I say it's all because of you _

And here I go, losing my control  
I'm practising your name so I can say it to your face  
It doesn't seem right, to look you in the eye  
Let all the things you mean to me  
Come tumbling out my mouth  
Indeed it's time to tell you why  
I say it's infintely true

Say you'll stay, don't come and go  
Like you do  
Sway my way, yeah I need to know  
All about you

And there's no cure, and no way to be sure  
Why everything's turned inside out  
Instilling so much doubt  
It makes me so tired - I feel so uninspired  
My head is battling with my heart  
My logic has been torn apart  
And now it all turns sour  
Come sweeten every afternoon

The silence between Sophie and Remus stretched on as tension started to grow. Lily and Sophie had taken to sitting with the boys at dinner, and usually, jokes flew back and forth across the table when the six of them were sitting together talking (except when Sirius was off sitting with his recent girlfriend). Since that fateful night, that had changed. Not only because of Sophie and Remus, but because everyone was sort of angry at someone: Although Remus and Sirius had made up again, they were still rather cold. Peter had always been silent, but if it was possible, he had grown even further apart from his friends during the past weeks. And Lily was just angry at everyone, because they were all in on what was happening, and none of them had told her. Consequently, dinner was a silent affair, apart from James' constant joking – a desperate and futile attempt to lift the tension.

Sophie was so angry she couldn't think straight. She just didn't know what to do, say, or even feel. So she just kept waiting for something to happen, not knowing what it was and what it would change.

The turning-point came three days after, on a Thursday evening, just as Sophie was walking back from her last class of the day. She took one of the shortcuts the boys had showed her through a little used corridor. It was mainly used by the house elves, who kept their cleaning utensils in broom cupboards along the walls. Sirius had once boasted that he had snogged a different girl in each one of them. Personally, Sophie had never been in one of them, but she gathered from Sirius' tales that they must be big enough for two people to fit in there and do certain things. Just as she was pondering that, she was grabbed and shoved into one of said cupboards, and before she could even scream, the door was closed and locked with a resounding click. Sophie got the fright of her life when suddenly someone next to her said:

"I gather that was a new plan to get me to talk to you."

"Remus! No, just imagine, I had nothing to do with this. I was grabbed and pushed in here against my will. And what brings you here?"

"Pretty much the same fate. Do you have a wand?" Sophie wanted to pull hers out of her pocket, just to find that it was gone.

"It's gone. How did that happen?"

"It's probably the work of the same person who got us in here. What do we do now? We can't get out."

"Well, since you already mentioned it, we could talk about you being a jerk again. And maybe this time you won't walk away."

"Oh yeah, and to make this whole thing more fun, maybe we could bang our heads against the wall." He answered dryly, and Sophie flinched. She knew he had a sarcastic streak, but now was really not the time to let it show. She took a step back and said resignedly:

"Remus, I can't do this anymore. This situation is so wrecked up, and our friend are suffering too. We need to come up with a solution." He still played dumb:

"A solution for what?"

"Oh please, I know you can't handle you own feelings but then you should at least respect mine. I know you have self-esteem problems and you feel like you're dangerous and unworthy to be liked by a girl, we've been through that. Now we'll talk about my feelings, because believe it or not, I actually do have feelings for you, and I'm not willing to let you walk around on them with your stupid werwolf problem, so you should just get your act together and …" She couldn't continue, as he had closed the distance between them to kiss her hard on the lips.

And when Sirius returned a while later to unlock the cupboard and look after his friends, they didn't even notice.

A/N: I'm so glad I got back into the story, and I'm actually hoping to finish it soon. I hope you liked this chapter as much as I do, beacuse the next one is going to be awfully short.

The song is "Sway" by Bic Runga, and it is just sooo beautiful.


	17. Time to chat

Time to chat

_Oh, it feels like I can finally _

_Rest my head on something real_

_And I love the way that feels_

_And oh, it's as is you knew me better_

_Than I ever knew myself_

_I love how you can tell_

_All the pieces, pieces, _

_Pieces of me_

On the last weekend before the christmas holidays, Sophie and Lily finally had time to talk again – they had both been so busy they'd only seen each other at meals and during classes. At least after Remus and Sophie had finally made up, the atmosphere had got much better. At first, Lily had still felt left out but James had told her again and again that he would like to tell her but couldn't as it wasn't his business, and he looked so sincerely sorry about it that Lily finally couldn't help but forgive him. It took her a little longer to forgive Sophie, but once she did, there was nothing stopping them from sitting down with loads of cookies and just chatting and giggling like they used to do before.

"So, you and Remus."

"Yes. Finally!"

"You know, it was a lot earlier than I would have expected."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. One minute you're complaining he doesn't open up, and the next you're kissing him. I mean, I just didn't see it coming so fast. I thought it would take you a little longer to get him out of his shell."

"Lily, it's been two months since I told you I wasn't getting through. You were just so busy with NEWTs and Head Girl duties and James, you didn't really notice anything. We did a lot together, you know." Lily looked at Sophie horrified, realising guiltily that it was true: She really hadn't paid much attention to her friend's life. Sophie placed a hand on her arm.

"It's okay. I know you've been busy. And I didn't mind, honestly. In a way it's what made me get together with Remus."

"O Sophie, I'm so sorry. I won't ever abandon you again!"

"Actually, now that I've got a boyfriend, I will have to spend a lot of time with him. I might not have so much time for you anymore." Lily hit her on the head.

"So you did mind!"

"Yes, but only a little bit. But I'm sure you won't miss me all that much, now that you've got James…" Lily wanted to protest, but then she just sighed.

"He's confusing."

"How?"

"I don't know. He's nice and sweet all the time, but then he goes and gets in a fight with some Slytherins or says something incredibly macho, or plays a prank or shows off. Though that hasn't happened for quite some time."

"You know what I think? I think the only confusing person here is you. He has made himself perfectly clear, but you don't know what you want yet."

"Well, that's the tricky thing about feelings, they keep changing!"

A/N: Sorry again for the long update. The song is by Ashlee Simpson, and even though it isn't directly linked to the scene in this chapter, it's meant to show what Sophie feels like.


	18. Merry Christmas

**Merry Christmas**

_And I'd give up forever to touch you  
Cause I know that you feel me somehow  
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be  
And I don't wanna go home right now  
_

_  
And all I can taste is this moment  
And all I can breathe is your life  
Cause sooner or later it's over  
I just don't wanna miss you tonight  
_

_  
And I don't want the world to see me  
Cause I don't think that they'd understand  
When everything's made to be broken  
I just want you to know who I am  
_

Two weeks and several flying practices later, James and Lily finally stood by the huge castle doors and watched the students take off to the Hogwarts express that would be taking them home for Christmas with their families. To Lily's dismay, Sophie would go home too, leaving her with only the marauders, a few first and second years and the Slythering gang of Snape and his cronies.

What she didn't know was that this was only the case because of a rather weird letter Mrs Potter had received from her son telling her that neither he nor their permanent house guest Sirius Black would be coming home for Christmas. Neither would Remus or Peter, because after James had announced he would "rather sell my broom than leave Lily here with this Slytherin pack from hell", they had decided to just spend Christmas together at Hogwarts in an act of male solidarity. That was when everyone had started their own special Christmas preparations. Lily had bought presents for the few people she had, Sophie, James (whom she had grown rather fond of over the past weeks) and their families as a thank you for letting her stay with them last summer. James spent hours looking for the perfect present for Lily after he'd bought the presents for his parents and his friends in less than an hour. Sirius would get a book about Quidditch and – hidden within – one called "101 charms and ways to get the girl of your heart to do what she already wants before she even knows she wants it", Peter a new potions set, since he'd blown his up in October. For Remus he had found a grey cashmere scarf with an integrated warming charm, since he was always shivering with cold around the full moon. His mum would get the perfume he bought her every year, and for his father he'd bought a mixed assortment of joke chocolates and exquisite truffles. But he'd had no idea what to get Lily. It had to be something special, something that showed he cared about her. But it absolutely mustn't frighten her or be so expensive that she'd feel obligated to give it back, Remus had told him. Personally, he would have been fine to spend all his money on her present and just write poems for his friends and family, but he suspected, as always Remus would be right.

He'd considered books, since she loved reading, but had quickly given up on that because it was just too impersonal. School utensils such as quills, parchment or even new potions ingredients posed the same problem. He'd briefly considered chocolate, but Sirius had told him about girls and chocolate: "When you give them chocolate while they're on a diet, they'll be angry because you're so inattentive and will just throw it away."

After he'd almost given up hope in the cold wind and icy rain, he'd found it, the perfect gift. It was a fine silver necklace with a pendant of a small fox with glowing green for eyes.

In the meantime, the marauders had done some little Christmas preparations on their own. While Lily had been busy packing her presents, they'd snuck into the Head commons and decorated it a bit more Christmas-y. Remus thought it would give James a few extra points in Lily's eyes. Sirius on the other hand had brought a sprig of mistletoe to fix over the doorway, for much the same reasons: To give James something to work on.

"Do you really think a simple kiss will be enough to make her realize that James is the right one for her?" Remus asked doubtfully. Sirius shrugged.

"Why not? It worked for you." Remus blushed. He'd earned a great deal of laughter and teasing once his friends had gotten it out of him that Sophie had kissed him and therefore forced him to jump over his shadow and admit his own feelings for her. Sirius' first measure to bring the tenderly blossoming romance one step further was to lock them into a broom closet together… Maybe, Remus thought to himself, the kissing thing was not such a bad idea.

There was no kissing that evening, but at least Remus' plan worked out: Lily was amazed when she saw the red and gold Christmas decoration, and instantly added fifty points to her mental "Points for James"-account. She even told him how much she liked it when he joined her in front of the fireplace in the head commons. That evening passed in peaceful, content silence. Lily was happy that James had thought of decorating their rooms, and James was just happy that she liked it. They spent the days leading up to Christmas in peaceful silence, and by the time Christmas Eve came around, James was really nervous about the present he'd bought for Lily. What if she didn't like it? What if she thought he'd only bought it to get into her pants, or to flaunt his money? When they both returned to their respective rooms after a delicious meal and a few butterbeers in front of the fireplace, James seriously considered sneaking into her room and taking the package away before she woke up.

He never got a chance, because before he knew it, he'd fallen asleep, and only woke up by a delighted shriek and Lily storming into his room.

"James, did you get this necklace for me? It's beautiful!" He sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes sleepily. After he'd grabbed his glasses from the nightstand and could see a little clearer, he noticed again how beautiful she was, even though she was still in her blue pyjamas and her hair was all messed up.

"Don't tell me you just woke up? It's Christmas, you sleepyhead, you're supposed to open presents. Now help me put this on, will you?" He kicked off the sheets and stood up, and Lily had to stifle a gasp when she noticed that he was sleeping only in his boxers, and his chest looked as good as it felt when she had leant against it during their flying lessons. Before he could see her blush, she turned her back to him and lifted her hair to give him access to her neck, where he quickly placed the necklace, letting his fingers linger on her soft skin. It was only for a fraction of a second, but it sent pleasant shivers through her. 'Get a grip', Lily thought to herself, before she turned around.

"How do I look?" She asked him. He looked deep into her eyes, and answered, his voice still husky:

"Perfect." This time, they both blushed, and before Lily could stop herself, she'd taken a step closer, placed a hand on his shoulder, stood on her tiptoes and quickly placed a chaste kiss on his lips. Or at least, that's what she had planned. Before Lily knew what happened, James had grabbed her waist and pulled her closer, crashing his lips onto hers. He felt her body go rigid in shock, and he was just about to let go of her and profoundly apologize when – to his utter surprise - he felt her melt into him. She snaked her arms around his neck, and when she tentatively responded to his kiss while playing with his hair, he felt as if he would explode.

Until he came up for air, let go of Lily, and found her looking at him with wide, horrified green eyes. And before he could even try to hold her back, she had turned on her heels and stormed out of his room.

At least she remembered to grab her cloak on her way through the common room, otherwise she would've been standing outside in the snow in just her pyjamas. Lily was heading to her usual quiet place: The lakeshore on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

That's where she sank down on the ground, realizing that her legs were still rather wobbly. She couldn't believe that James had just kissed her – and that she had kissed him back! But the flutter in her stomach and her tingling lips were undeniable proof. Proof that the worst had happened: She had let her defences down – to James Potter, of all people.

Lily's memories turned back to her first day of school, and in her mind appeared the picture of a small, frightened redhaired girl walking down the corridor of the Hogwarts Express in search of a free compartment. She slid open one of the last few doors on the corridor, and thankfully, only five of the six seats were taken, and the four boys and one girl didn't seem to be much older than her. It took a few seconds for the others to notice her shy figure in the doorway, as they were engrossed in a very noisy, rather intimidating game that involved what seemed to be exploding pebbles who oozed very poisonous looking green fluid from time to time. All of a sudden, the tall, pale, dark-haired girl who was sitting next to the door turned her head and looked at her. Her cold black eyes seemed to pierce into hers, and Lily tried hard not to flinch when the girl addressed her.

"Who are you?" The four boys in the compartment seemed to fear the girl, because the second she spoke, they interrupted their game and turned silent, watching the exchange.

"Lily Evans, I'm a first-year." The dark-haired girl looked her up and down.

"Figures! Evans – I've never heard of that name. Are you from an old family?" Lily didn't really know what she meant, or if it was a good thing being from an old family.

"I don't think so. My family is very small." The others looked at her, perplexed, and Lily realised that was probably not the answer they had been expecting. While they were still all watching her, obviously trying to figure her out, the girl let out a short, barking laugh.

"I get it! You're muggle-born, aren't you?" For the first time since Lily had met her, the girl's eyes showed a bit of life – a malicious glint, followed by a sneer.

"Well, sit down. As you obviously don't know anything about Hogwarts yet – because, how should you? – I will tell you what it's like. Especially for the likes of you. Unfortunately, the school is forced to let you come, but most of you never understand our world, so usually, they don't cope very well. Most of them are just too stupid or not talented enough. And of course, life is harder for you. Not only do you have to catch up on the 12 years of magical life that you missed, you also have to work for your stay. Of course, as your mudblood work isn't really worth a lot, you will probably be living somewhere down in the dungeons. Should you still be convinced that you want to at least try an education here, then be warned: If you turn out to be one of the few gifted mudbloods – which I doubt, because you don't look so smart – be aware to never, ever try to best us at anything. It won't help you at all, believe me. There are a lot of purebloods like us, and they don't like cheeky little mudblood things like you are, got me? And you better not let too many people know about what you are, otherwise the less friendly ones might notice you. So, what have you learned so far?"

Lily could only sit there, mouth and eyes agape, and silently pray to be awoken from this nightmare.

"First, you are worthless and stupid. Second, should you turn out to be smart after all, never ever dare to surpass the real witches and wizards. And third, better stay really, really quiet!"

"At that moment, the compartment door was pushed open and a brown-haired girl with sparkling blue eyes stepped in.

"Bellatrix, stop this rubbish right now! How will muggles ever cease to be afraid of us if you talk to them like this! Come on, this is no place for someone who isn't familiar with the wizarding world yet!" With that, she pulled Lily up by her arm and dragged her out of the apartment, turning once more at the door to address the black-haired girl Lily knew now was called Bellatrix.

"I'm warning you, Bella, my parents have told me things about you and your family that you might not want to hear spread about the school. So you would do well to keep a low profile and leave other students alone." She slammed the door shut and led Lily to a compartment further down the corridor.

"Don't let her scare you, she's always been mean and nasty like this. Nothing she told you is true! Oh, I'm Sophie Hunter. By the way. And you are...?"

"Lily Evans." Lily's voice was barely more than a whisper, so intimidated was she by Bellatrix' stories and threats, but also by this brave, energetic girl, who seemed so strong and grown-up, even though she couldn't be older than herself. Meanwhile, Sophie was chatting away excitedly while putting Lily's things on the luggage rack.

"Are you a first-year too? I am so excited! My mum and dad have told me so much about Hogwarts, but I can't wait to see it with my own eyes. Of course I will be in Gryffindor, because they were both there as well... I wonder who else is going to be there... Probably that noisy James Potter, his family has always been Gryffindor as well. But as annoying as he is, he might be good for our Quidditch team one day – he has had flying lessons since he's five, can you imagine that?" Lily absolutely couldn't.

This was all too much – she only understood every second word this girl was saying. She did understand that Sophie had saved her from the mean Bellatrix girl. And as thankful as she was, in that very moment, Lily decided that no one would ever have to save her again. She would learn everything there was about this world, and study, and one day she would be better at it then Bellatrix herself, and she would show them all! That's what Lily decided on her first day of school, and she had stayed true to it: She was the best student, but that was only because she had never let anyone distract her. And James would not be the first do that!

Determinedly, Lily pulled her cloak tighter around her and turned around to march back up to the castle.

She didn't come very far though: Close to the edge of the lake, a group of really nasty Slytherin sixth-years was standing, huddled together and obviously doing something forbidden. Lily sighed, considering for a second to just ignore it and go back inside, but then her conscience got the better of her. It was her job as head girl to watch out and stop stuff like this after all.

"Hey, boys, put away your wands and stop messing with forbidden curses." Upon hearing her command, they turned around and sneered at her, and Lily wondered if they practiced that together in their common room.

"Well, look who's joining us, her moral highness the head girl. What a pleasure to see you."

"Save that for the next fourteen-year-old you're taking to Hogsmeade, will you? It's my duty to tell you that you are not allowed to throw curses at each other or any other persons, animals or objects on the school grounds, and even less the type of Class B dangerous curses that I saw you using, so I will have to deduct 15 points each from your house. And now you'd better go inside and do something productive." For a second, they stared at her in shock. Then what seemed to be their leader and the most unpleasant of the group, stared at her, before snarling:

"It is so good to see that our head girl is taking her duty seriously. Makes you feel safer, in a way. But I hate to say that we still feel a little threatened by some of the things going on in the lake – sounds like the merpeople are using some class A forbidden curses. Maybe you should go and have a look what's going on in there…" And before Lily understood a word of it, he had grabbed her by the cloak and shoved her over the high edge into the lake.

The fall seemed very short, but the second she hit the ice cold surface of the lake felt like ages. Her entire body was engulfed in painful cold that seemed to cut off her respiration and slice her skin with thousands of little knives. She was underwater, quickly losing her sense of orientation, and her cloak began to pull her down. She remembered to kick and paddle with her arms, and thankfully, came up above the surface again. She heard the boys laughing and cheering, but tried to ignore it while frantically swimming over to a spot where the water was less deep and the edge less steep in order to climb out. The cheering and laughing sounded quieter and further away, and she realized the boys were leaving her out here – possibly to die. With a sudden fear-induced flash of adrenaline, she wriggled out of the coat, and was now able to swim faster without being dragged down. She still had trouble breathing though, her limbs had gone numb and her skin was burning up. Still, with her last bit of strength, she managed to climb out of the water, where she collapsed onto the snow. And then the world turned dark around her.

A/N: I know it's taken me aged to update this, but I hope there are still some of you sticking around to see what happens to Lily and James. The song is by the Goo Goo Dolls.


End file.
